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The Literacy Connection Blog

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Technology evolves faster than most of us can keep up with. This evokes feelings of fear, frustration, incompetence, and ultimately, avoidance. One way to reduce anxiety around technology is to use a conceptual framework called digital resilience. 

The 3 Period Lesson is a great place to start tutoring new arrivals with little or no English, literacy, or formal education.

Explore nonprofit leadership with your colleagues across the state with author Erik Hanberg’s 4 book series:

• The Little Book of Gold
• The Little Book of Nonprofit Leadership
• The Little Book of Boards
• The Little Book of Likes

If you serve English Language Learners you have no doubt heard about BurlingtonEnglish. It is being used by large and small literacy programs in Wisconsin. One of those programs is in Waukesha, an office of Literacy Services of Wisconsin. They were recently featured in an article in the WITESOL newsletter. Click the link to see how this program is successfully using BurlingtonEnglish to give their students a boost in grasping English.

Volunteers brighten the lives of students around Wisconsin and make staff lives much easier, too. Whether they are tutors, trainers, office assistants, board members or even cookie bakers, literacy instruction would be hard-pressed to happen without them.

Learn about the history of volunteerism in America and tips on how to thank your volunteers.

Find out how to make your point clearly and concisely in 2021. Anna Bierer, Northeast Regional Literacy Consultant, shares her favorite plain language strategies, who plain language helps, and where she uses plain language in her work.

Prescription labels are often confusing.  Understanding labels can be a challenge for all patients, but especially for those who have low health literacy. Patients who don’t know how to take their medications correctly can get hurt or even die. Wisconsin Health Literacy helps pharmacies create labels that are easier to read, understand, and follow. Follow these 8 practices to have a more patient friendly label.

People advocate for literacy to draw attention, change and resources to the cause.

Use these effective advocacy tips from a staffer who received advocacy calls for a Senator.

To vote and complete the US Census, adults must understand:

-- how the process works
-- who can participate
-- when they can participate.  

Worried about summer slide? Anna Bierer shares the summer reading programs and activities she found at public libraries in Wisconsin and what works for her family.

Skip the port-a-potties…skip the check-in line and walk for a purpose in your own neighborhood. Walk to support Children’s Dyslexia Center!

When? Saturday, May 16th

How? Collect pledges for your own, unique course. Run a 5k around your neighborhood or at a local park….or plot a walk from your bedroom to the kitchen and back again.

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind event—register now!

With all of the lists of learning sites available for kids, we thought it would be fun (and helpful) to share a list of our absolute favorites.

New to working from home? Here are some tips from Wisconsin Literacy staff to help you get started.

Census invitations are going out March 12-20. This corresponds with many literacy program closings. Here are tips to make sure our learners are counted.

In this new year, commit to clearer communication and fewer headaches! Follow 5 plain language strategies to get your message across faster, motivate your readers to act quickly and accurately, and reduce the time you spend prompting, clarifying and correcting.

The 2019 WIOA Roundtable's theme was “Innovation in Workforce” where attendees could learn more about the innovative programs, projects, approaches, and ideas happening throughout Wisconsin in the world of workforce.

Read about Michele Erikson's top 5 takeaways.

You are an expert about the literacy services you provide to your learners. You are the best person to tell that story. Here is how you get it out in traditional and social media.

What if you took the amount of time and energy you spend recruiting volunteers and swap that with the amount of time and energy you spend maintaining volunteers?

Aaron Goyette, from Literacy Servies of Wisconsin, shared with us his top 5 tips from the conference.

The GED conference helped me focus more clearly on people, who are students (not the other way around).

You are pioneers. It’s slow work. It’s long and hard work. But it's worth it.

“…the most useful and influential people [in America] are those who take the deepest interest in institutions that exist for the purpose of making the world better.”

“An attitude of gratitude creates blessings. Help yourself by helping others.”

“As the purse is emptied the heart is filled.”

“Charity begins at home but should not end there.”

“Charity is a supreme virtue, and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to mankind. It is the virtue that unites men and inspires their noblest efforts.”

“Difficult things we do quickly. The impossible takes a little longer.”

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

“Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”

“Generosity is the flower of justice.”

“How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

“I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My own experience about all the blessings I've had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way life works, and that is the way energy works.”

“I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them there's only us.”

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

“I think the great livers, the people who are fully self-actualizing and alive, are the great givers.”