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Intergenerational Literacy Project
Partnerships for Literacy Success
Accidental Vestments
Book Clubs
Bookmaking
Books for Humanity
ESL Classes
Literacy Through Poetry
Kids At Work
National Writing Project
Poetry in Motion
The Wordshop Project
The Writing Mentor Project
YouthOn Restorative Justice
Research @ the Community Literacy Center
Community Partners & Local Literacy Networks
Literacy Network of Larimer County
The Community Literacy Center Staff Blogs: Center for Community Literacy (CLC)'s Blog
Please note: This is the full content of this blog, however, it is not the "live" version. Therefore, while you can read replies that have been posted to this blog, you cannot post a reply here.
Home: Meet the Staff
Center for Community Literacy (CLC)'s Bio
Former Staff and Their Blogs
Cheyne Kirpatrick's Blog
April 9, 2009 Family Fun & Literacy Night at the CORE Center! |
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The CORE center of north Fort Collins will be hosting the 2nd anual Family Fun & Literacy Night next Tuesday, April 14, 2009 from 5pm to 7:30pm. The CORE Center is located at 114 Bristlecone DR (south of Albertson's off north College Ave). This event will include FREE BOOKS, story time, crafts, puppet shows, reading with CSU students, and local ESL and library information. Everyone is invited!!! Sponsored by: CORE (Community Organizing to Reach Empowerment), Habitat for Humanity (Books for Humanity), and the CSU TESL/TEFL Graduate Student Association. |
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March 3, 2009 Community Literacy at the CORE Center in Spring 2009 |
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This spring 2009 semester in the Community Literacy Center I have been continuing the Partnership for Literacy Success program with the CORE center of Fort Collins. The main focus of the program this semester was to expand the English as a second language (ESL) class and to provide more and better access to computers at the CORE center. I am happy to announce that with the help of interns and volunteers we have been able to expand the original single ESL class to now offer both basic and advanced ESL classes. There has been a wonderful turnout of local adult students this semester in our ESL classes and it has been a great experience to teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking literacy skills to the students from our community. I have often had students from the CORE center come back and thank us for the English skills we had taught them because they were able to use these literacy skills in important real world situations (i.e. the doctors office, the bank, to help their children with homework, etc.). As I continue to work with the CORE center this semester I will update my progress via this blog. It has already been a great semester and I hope to build upon our success even more in the future. |
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December 2, 2008 Thoughts on the Partnership for Literacy Success & Training Teachers @ CORE |
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As the Fall semester comes to a close I'm left with reflections on what we've accomplished in promoting literacy in the community and high hopes for whats to come next semester. I've completed my SIOP (sheltered instruction operating protocol) teacher training sessions for the interns and volunteers of the CORE center in Fort Collins and although this was my first attempt at training other teachers/volunteers to better teach the English language, I think that it went well and was beneficial for everyone. Now not only do the interns I work with teaching ESL at the CORE center better understand where I'm coming from when teaching, they themselves have a better idea of how to be an affective instructor when working with English language learners. It is very rewarding to see these interns and volunteers use some of the methods and strategies that I taught them when I watch them working with our students. I believe that those who attended my sessions and the CORE center as a whole did benefit and now has better informed instructors. The experience was also very rewarding and useful for me as an instructor and I feel much more confident that I could conduct a larger scale teacher training session in the future for area teachers or people working with language learners. These teacher training sessions have also opened my eyes to the posibility of training teachers in the future as a possible career choice after graduate school. I will continue to follow-up concerning my plans and progress for the Partnership for Literacy Success at the CORE center. We hope to expand our ESL classes next semester and continue to promote literacy in the community with the CORE center. |
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October 21, 2008 Teacher Training |
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As an ESL instructor at CORE, the local community center in north Fort Collins, my ESL program, as well as many other programs, have the help of many undergraduate interns and volunteers. These people are an important part in the success of classes at CORE, but recently I realized how many of these interns and volunteers lack any type of formal training in education or how to teach learners, especially English language learners. In order to improve the quality of existing programs and help promote literacy amongst the students and staff at the CORE center I am planning a teacher training workshop. This workshop will be based on the SIOP model of teaching, meaning Sheltered Instruction Operating Protocol. The SIOP model was originally introduced to me in my ESL methodology course and I use this model to create the lessons/curriculum in almost all classes I teach. This model has proven very effective in designing lessons for English language learners and learners with other language barriers.
It is my hope that by better educating instructors, assistant instructors, interns, and volunteers on how to educate their learners that the overall literacy level and quality of these programs will increase.
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October 21, 2008 Community, Institutions, & Literacy |
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In an attempt to better educate myself on how community literacy programs function in our community, I recently read the chapter “Community and Community Literacies” from the book Community Literacy Programs and the Politics of Change by Jeffrey T. Grabill.
This reading discussed the concept of what a ‘community’ is in relation to an ‘institution’. A community is a broad definition that is informal, unmanaged, associational in nature, and driven by consent. An ‘institution’ can generally be coercive and difficult to change. Often in a community people work with others to design institutions that meet local needs. Some examples of institutions are schools, government agencies, and medical facilities. Sometimes certain populations in the community may avoid these institutions for various reasons and look towards other aspects of the community to serve their needs, such as community centers.
The idea of asset based development in the community was discussed. This plan of development includes the components a) beginning with assets in the community and utilizing those assets to address problems b) focuses internally on local consensus building and problem solving and c) is relationship driven and includes individuals, associations, and institutions.
Since the needs and demographics of our communities are changing with globalization the available services much also adapt. The shift in the economy from manufacturing to information and services requires new training and the community cannot always rely on formal institutions. In this way local institutions and the community is interrelated and work together to serve the many needs of the people.
I was originally interested in how communities and institutions are related because my literacy project is taking place at a community center (C.O.R.E.) which is affiliated and a part of institutions such as Colorado State University and the Poudre School District.
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October 21, 2008 My Community Literacy Plans |
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The projects that I am currently working on at the CLC include creating an ESL Computer Literacy course/program for the C.O.R.E. center and administering a SIOP (sheltered instruction operating protocol) teacher training session for volunteers, interns, etc. at the CORE center.
I have been meeting with the Director of the C.O.R.E. center and discussed options for the ESL computer literacy class. The CORE center recently received a grant that provided laptop computers which we plan to use. The possible options for the computer literacy program are to either have volunteers go out into high need areas of our community or to hold classes at the CORE center, located in northern Fort Collins.
The other initiative I’ve been preparing is the SIOP teacher training session. The session I conduct this semester will be a “pilot” session of sorts for a more extensive session in the near future. The training session is geared towards volunteers, undergraduate interns, or any other person who works teaching students, especially students learning the English language.
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