News & Blog
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Monika Skripal’s motivation for practicing her English language skills always comes back to one thing: family. As the mother of 
two young daughters, Monika is using her English daily to advocate for their needs and to support their education. In fact, it was through their school – West Godwin Elementary – that Monika first heard about the parent-focused English classes offered through the Literacy Center’s Family Literacy Program.
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Does your learner have a voracious appetite for knowledge that is difficult to quench?
For some first-time tutors, coming up with lessons that consistently engage learners' literacy goals can feel like a daunting task. With so many available resources, it's easy to feel overwhelmed.
This is why we decided to showcase Cambridge University Press's high-interest, real-life topic series, Ventures. At its core, Ventures is a five-level, standards-based English language learning series for adults.
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Jean Buys has been a tutor with us since 2015 and has worked alongside her current learner, Kim Thi Le, since September. Jean is a veteran who served in the Air Force, Army, and National Guard. Jean now spends her time working as a career and life coach while taking care of her family.
How did you get involved with the Literacy Center?
My mom instilled the love of reading in me at a young age. Every month I would get a Dr. Seuss book in the mail. She'd call me in from outside and together we’d read the book. Also, my mother was as a tutor [at the Literacy Center].
It was during the Literacy Center’s annual picnic that I'd get to meet my mother’s learners and their families. It was like a small seed that began growing inside me after the second and third picnic. I wanted to get involved.
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Are you stuck in a rut with your tutoring?
Are you looking for more activity ideas, teaching strategies, or even a refresher on best practices for tutoring? Look no further than the reference book LITSTART: Strategies for Adult Literacy and ESL Tutors.
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Christopher Helgeson is a software developer who has been working alongside Saw-Sa-Nay, a native of Myanmar, since October of 2017. With Christopher’s guidance, Saw is making significant progress in his listening and conversation skills. Just as importantly, the two have had a meaningful exchange of cultural ideas and experiences.
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Great Short Stories for Listening & Speaking
For tutors who are looking for meaningful conversation practice for their advanced level learners, Great Short Stories for Listening-Speaking offers adaptations of timeless short stories from authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm. Like similar items in our library, this workbook provides our learners an opportunity to access stories with simplified and engaging vocabulary.
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Interviewer: Katherine Payne (Literacy Coordinator)
Anthony Hanline is a full-time student and has tutored his learner, Abubaker, since September 2016. This past November, Abubaker was sworn in as a US citizen after passing the difficult naturalization exam. Anthony and Abubaker worked together closely to prepare for the exam, and Anthony agreed to share his experiences with the naturalization process to encourage fellow tutors and learners.
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For Lili and her husband Omary, literacy is a family affair.
The couple, both born in the Congo, struggled to find jobs in West Michigan that would support their family of five and 
provide meaningful work. They each felt that their English literacy levels limited their ability to work in their desired fields—Omary as an electrician and Lili in healthcare.
That’s when Omary discovered the Literacy Center. He enrolled in the Construction Core program, a partnership with the Literacy Center and Grand Rapids Community College’s M-TEC. Soon after, Lili enrolled in a similar class for Certified Nurse Aid (CNA). Both of these classes taught the necessary job skills with the support of an English language instructor from the Literacy Center.
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Listen & Level Up with Pearson English Readers
Are you and your learner ready to take listening comprehension to the next level? If so, we encourage you to stop by our library to check out Pearson's English Readers Series.
Pearson, a conduit of education publishing and assessment services, understands the needs of English learners. The English Readers Series attempts to streamline the process of developing listening comprehension by offering an array of titles, all of which include plans for pre-reading and post-reading analysis and further online lesson plans.
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Reading & Writing: Weaving it Together
Learner and tutor pairs often tell me that writing is the one topic that presents the most difficulty for them. Fortunately, we have a great resource called Weaving It Together that can help.
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Queyonna sat down with Diedre Deering and her learner, Malvin Brooks, during one of their tutoring sessions in the Literacy Center's tutor library. Diedre is the Executive Assistant at the Literacy Center, and she and Malvin have been meeting together since May 2017.
What did those first meetings look like?
Malvin and I met for the first time at the Van Belkum library branch. For the first couple of weeks, we just got to know each other. From the very beginning, I was impressed at Malvin's dedication. He is so faithful about doing his homework and always shows up for tutoring even though he works two jobs.
What was your proudest moment as a tutor?
I would say my proudest moment was when Malvin received his score on the second [reading] test he took after we started working together. He had a significant jump in score on that second test, and it showed that everything we'd been working on was helping him improve.
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From Pro Lingua Associates: A Phrasal Verb Affair
For most people studying English, learning how to use phrasal verbs is a significant challenge. They are semantically and grammatically complex, and often use verbs with different meanings.
Unfortunately, those of us who are native speakers use these phrasal verbs frequently throughout our daily conversations and in writing. The Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs currently lists 12,000 different entries; this can confuse learners of all levels.
For learners who are interested in working on phrasal verbs, I recommend “A Phrasal Verb Affair.” This bright pink workbook is hard to miss in our tutor library and includes an audio CD with conversations from the lessons.
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A Second Chance at a Dream: Rachida's Story
Rachida was born in Algeria, and always dreamt of working in the very competitive healthcare field in her country. Instead, 
Rachida graduated with a degree in Marketing and took a position as an administrative assistant in the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy.
When Rachida moved to Grand Rapids in December of 2017 to join her husband, she saw an opportunity to change her career. It was a second chance for her dream: to start from the beginning of her journey into the healthcare field.
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Johana Rodriguez Quist Hired as Family Literacy Program Director
The Literacy Center of West Michigan is pleased to announce Johana Rodriguez Quist as the new director of its Family Literacy Program
, a program that strengthens the connection between home and school by addressing the literacy needs of adults in children’s lives.
“Our Family Literacy Program aligns parents’ education with what their children are learning in the classroom,” said Dr. Wendy Falb, executive director of the Literacy Center of West Michigan. “Johana’s experience supporting parents in the public schools gives her a deep understanding of the need for teaching parents the language skills necessary to break the generational cycle of low literacy.”
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Paul Conlon began working with his learner, Livingstone, in 2016. Paul was a retired teacher who had worked with children for more than 30 years, but was admittedly a bit apprehensive about working with an adult. He quickly learned that adult learners like Livingstone are often highly motivated to learn.
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September's A-Z Textbook | Focus on Grammar
For adult learners hoping to improve their literacy skills, grammar can seem like an insurmountable barrier to fluency. For their tutors, grammar can be an out-of-reach concept tied to knowledge they acquired in early school days. Thankfully, the book Focus on Grammar structures grammar instruction in an accessible and relatable way.
With the sheer amount of information needing to be covered in English grammar, most adult literacy textbooks choose between covering the basics for everyday use or exploring advanced usage more necessary for higher education.
Focus on Grammar marries these two opposing needs into one series. With five levels ranging from beginning to advanced, learners can build their grammar fluency at any stage of their learning path.
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Why did you want to become an AmeriCorps member with the Literacy Center?
During my Capstone for my Master’s Degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), I got involved 
with the Literacy Center as a volunteer tutor. I was matched with a learner from Burma, named Say Paw, and I continue to be her tutor to this day. I received information about the AmeriCorps program through my professor at Cornerstone and was immediately interested in the opportunity for teaching experience and connecting with the Grand Rapids Public Schools community.
Describe your role. What is your job like?
My official position is an ESL instructor, but we as AmeriCorps members have many roles in the community. Last year, I taught ESL classes at Cook Library, Buchannan, Burton, Dickinson and West Godwin schools in the morning and in the afternoon. My learners were adult beginning learners of English with children that attended Grand Rapids Public Schools or Godwin Heights Public Schools.
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Kalista Castine is a retired educator of adults and children within Special and Alternative Education. She has previously tutored with children at the West Michigan Children’s Dyslexia Center. She has been working with her learner Justin since February of this year, and the two have already seen significant improvement in his reading score. Justin is from Detroit and is working toward earning his GED.
Tell me about working with Justin.
Justin is a resourceful and persistent person, especially in his quest to improve his reading and spelling skills. We started 
working with what he knew and have built up our lessons from there. I continue to remind him that he is learning how to unlock literacy for himself. The first six months have flown by, and we are set to continue for as long as we need to or can.
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Learner English
Learner English, this month's reference spotlight, is a resource staple for many teachers and trainers of English language learners. We believe it can also be helpful to you as you work with your learner on navigating the English language. Learner English is designed to help you predict your learner's possible errors by examining their mother-tongue.
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Limerick Lessons with Steve and Maria
Steve Loar is a retired university professor of art, design, and woodworking. He now works as a sculptor, and his piece “Black Seam” won first prize in the 2018 West Michigan Art Competition. He has been working with his learner Maria since February 2017. Maria is a native of Lima, Peru.
How did it feel when you first started tutoring?
"Tutoring is a chance to be like that great teacher you had.. or maybe the great teacher you didn’t have. The first fear is in the beginning. Starting is scary – then you and your learner become partners in a quest."
