Archives

ILA President’s Message

April 10, 2017 No Comments

By Bob Stephenson, ILA President and Executive Director of The Literacy Coalition of Howard County We serve “The hardest to reach, the hardest to teach with the least amount of resources.” That is how an outside observer described what we do to me. I agreed then and I agree now but things are changing. The Indiana Literacy Association is working hard to give all of us access to more resources, more mentors, and more support. One way we are providing access to resources is at the IAACE Conference in French Lick. This year there is a day with a literacy

Join Together and Celebrate!

March 13, 2017 No Comments

By Pat Griffin, Associate Director, Interlocal Association As a Board member with the Indiana Literacy Association, my background is not in providing literacy services, rather, my career is in the administration of workforce development programs. While participating less than a year now as an ILA Board member, I have become increasingly aware of the connections as well as disconnects regarding coordinating literacy programs with workforce development program offerings. The Workforce development system provides services to the general public in WorkOne locations but often times in many other places within a community, such as Community Based Organizations and Libraries. Staff employed

Tutor Training Ideas From the Huntington County Literacy Coalition

February 9, 2017 No Comments

By Dawn Schmidt, Coordinator, Huntington County Literacy Coalition At last fall’s Indiana Literacy Association’s annual meeting, many of us were interested in tutor training. So I’ll share what we have done at Huntington County Literacy Coalition. Please share your practices and ideas too! We have around 35 tutors who meet with adults and children for individualized tutoring. Our volunteers are exceptionally caring citizens of Huntington County giving their time to help others learn. They epitomize our literacy’s tag line: “YOU CAN LEARN”. Each fall, we have new tutor training one night a week, for two weeks. This was a change

Annual Poetry Contest Announcement

January 24, 2017 No Comments

Greetings fellow Literacy friends, We are very pleased to be announcing our 1st Annual Poetry Contest! Adult Literacy Providers throughout the state are encouraged to help us find the “2017 INDIANA LITERACY ASSOCIATION’S POET LAUREATE.” The recipient of this award will be honored with: Indiana State Library Membership Card Press release to local newspaper in award recipient’s area Overnight stay at French Lick Springs Resort, French Lick, IN, on Wednesday, 4/26/2017 Recognized as a special guest during the Indiana Association of Adult and Continuing Education State Conference luncheon, where the award winner will be a featured presenter, and read

Our New “Blog of the Month”

January 10, 2017 No Comments

Greetings and Salutations fellow Literacy friends, At our last annual meeting, one of the things that you said you wanted from the Indiana Literacy Association was and is communication and sharing of ideas/resources. So, we formed a communications committee and continued the brainstorming on how best we can do that. Ta-da…you are now reading the blog of the month. Is that a cheesy name? Maybe we let you name it, hey; maybe we let you write it! Now, we are talking. We will be reaching out to members if you want to be a published blogger, send us an email.

Literacy in Indiana

November 10, 2016 No Comments

By Cynthia L. Cates, Executive Director, Kosciusko Literacy Services Long before adults become casualties of illiteracy, they were children who could not read. The window of opportunity for literacy never fully closes, but learning to read becomes more difficult as one ages. The literacy and language centers of the brain develop rapidly during the first five years of life. Though any child may have reading difficulties, children living in low-income homes are more vulnerable to not developing reading skills. The Indiana Literacy Association estimates that between 800,000 and 1,500,000 adults in Indiana read at basic or below basic levels of

Annual Meeting Follow-Up

September 30, 2016 No Comments

Thanks to all of you who attended our annual meeting last Friday and we look forward to meeting and working with all of you who were unable to attend. We had some great discussions, suggestions and are positioned to move forward! Below are a few things we would like to mention. ILA Calendar of Events is now available on our website: Reply to this email with any upcoming events you would like us to post, or visit our webpage http://www.indianaliteracy.org/calendar-of-events.html and use the contact form to submit them. We will help publicize your events by announcing them on our social

Indiana Literacy Annual Meeting

September 12, 2016 No Comments

The Board Members of the Indiana Literacy Association would like to invite you to our annual meeting When: Friday, September 23rd at 10:00 AM (EST) Where: Kokomo Chamber of Commerce (Conference Room), 325 N Main St, Kokomo, IN 46901 The meeting will begin with a short business meeting and then a general discussion about what we can do as a state organization to help your program. A light lunch of sandwiches will be provided. If your program doesn’t reimburse you for mileage the ILA will do so. We will finish the meeting around 1:30 PM. Please RSVP to inlitassoc@gmail.com

Literacy Elsewhere

March 24, 2016 No Comments

By Dan Helms In the United States, the definition of literacy keeps changing. For example, on its website, the National Council of Teachers of English contends that a literate person in the 21st century must possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, or many literacies. As such, the NCTE has expanded its definition of literacy as follows: Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to: Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology; Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought; Design