N e w s l e t t e r
Promote Literacy
by Melissa Jenkins-Simon, CEO
You Can Make a Difference! More than 44 million people in the United States are functionally illiterate. They can not effectively complete a job application, read a newspaper article or help their children with homework.
Unless we develop a generation of kids who really want to read, and understand the value of it and love it, we are never going to get rid of the problem of adult illiteracy.
Along with parents and guardians, the challenge falls on the shoulders of care providers and educators. Citing statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” Sharon Darling, president and founder of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), said the fact that there’s been little change in scores over the past 10 years does not mean that individual literacy levels have declined, but rather that the demand is greater.
Below are some tips to help you strengthen your own skills and techniques, and to spark new ideas for furthering literacy efforts in your school or child care program.
- Be a reading role model
- Bring the story to life
- Share, discuss, predict
- Have children read their own experience
- Pair books with activities
- Take advantage of teaching moments
- Read from a variety of sources
- Don’t neglect small group or one-on-one reading
- Create a lending library and book kits
- Have them ask for more
- Above all, be patient
Quote “The path to promoting literacy in young children, experts say, is astoundingly direct: Read to them every day.” |
From The Desk of Diane Stafford
by Diane Stafford, Program Administrator
Do You Know the Seven Steps to Reaching Your Goals? It’s time to evaluate your professional and personal goals, it’s a way of recognizing goals set and met, a kind of personal “kudos” that energizes us to strive toward goals that are unmet.
Clarity of purpose: For a dream to become a goal, it must be specific. “Develop time management skills this year” is very different from “Develop strategies daily to improve time management skills to be more efficient at work and allow additional time for my family.”
Commitment: Once your goal is clear, emotionally commit to achieving your goal. Don’t settle for less than you want.
Talk about it: Talking about your goals makes them real and powerful. It allows people to help you reach your goal and support you along the way. Remember, what you talk about- you bring about.
Write it down: This is one of the simplest and most powerful techniques for achieving any goal. Think about and revisit your goal daily. Post it somewhere you will see it frequently.
Have a plan: Create a map for getting there, and identify dates. Don’t see your goal as one big step. Break it down into the small steps you’ll take to reach it. Then focus on one step at a time.
Review, and recommit, often: Never be afraid to review your goals, evaluate whether you are still 100% committed to them, and recommit to achieving them. If your priorities change, adjust your goals accordingly, and be honest about it.
Celebrate each milestone: When you get discouraged or have doubts, your record of past successes will quickly get you on track. Celebrate each milestone on your path of victory!!
Remember the proverb: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Quality vs. Quantity
by Arthurine Kamphaus, Fund Development
Speed and volume are often the two focal points to determine productivity. What is more important? Quality or Quantity? An English teacher of mine in college did an experiment that I thought was a perfect example of this debatable issue. The experiment is as follows:
On the first day of the class he announced that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the classroom, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work produced, those on the right solely on quality. His procedure was simple. He gave both groups the same topic and we were to write a paper collaboratively. At the end of the class, he counted the number of pages the “quantity” group wrote and graded the paper. He found the paper extremely lengthy, redundant, incomprehensible with numerous spelling and grammatical errors. The overall quality of writing was equivalent to 5th grade level, not at all the college level that one might expect. He kindly stated the paper of the “quantity” group was long, but would not have had a passing grade. He asked to look at the paper from the “quality” group. One of the members of the group stood up and with a low voice informed him they had not finished the paper yet. In fact, they just barely completed the introduction.
This experiment illustrates the importance of balancing between quality and quantity. Even though the “quantity” group completed their paper in a timely manner, the quality of the paper is so poor that it barely resembles 5th graders’ level of writing. On the other hand, it appears that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of good-for-nothing work, the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories, a pile of crossed-out notes and an incomplete essay.
I find that the same lesson that my English teacher taught me in college is just as relevant in the work place. We all have a heavy workload. However, when one hastily does his/her work with a disregard for the work quality, it reflects poorly on that person’s work ethic. In addition, it creates extra work for other people on the team. It does not mean one’s work has to be perfect at all times. What we simply ask is the ability to balance between quality, quantity and a willingness to continuously strive for perfection. Double-check your work. Then and only then we can to maximize our productivity and be a team player.