Summer Quarter & Fall Reopening |
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As we continue our classes entirely online for summer quarter this year, let's take a look at some of the themes our students will be exploring!
For the ESOL classes, the focus is on community. Because the quarter is shorter, we will focus more on listening and speaking. Financial literacy, such as budgeting and understanding paychecks and benefits, will be the theme for our Ready to Work classes, and our citizenship classes are focused on preparing for the naturalization interview. Our GED class is reading Mother Tongue, a novel by Demetria Martínez and preparing for the Language Arts portion of the GED.
As you may know, Literacy Source plans to move to a hybrid model for fall quarter in an effort to meet the complex and varied needs of our students. For many, the online model has reduced barriers, and students have made amazing progress on their digital skills as well as their academic skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and math. However, writing instruction in particular for the lower level classes has been harder to support online, so in the fall, we're moving to a part in-person, part online mix for our lower-level daytime classes and tutoring. We will likely add more in-person opportunities as the year progresses and we see what models create more access and better learning environments. Evening class are going to stay completely online for the time being.
In addition to continuing a strong focus on teaching digital skills, we will continue to invest in providing Chromebooks and support in connecting to the internet so the on-line options are accessible to all students. We are excited to continue to learn and grow with our community of learners and continue to be thankful for your flexibility and support!
In Community,
Liz Wurster
Communications Coordinator
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Lake City Center Reopening Protocol |
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Lake City Center Fall Re-opening
We are cautiously planning the part-time re-opening of the center for the fall term. Our first concern, as always, is that staff, volunteers, and the community we serve feel safe and comfortable in their working/learning environment. Please check our Office Protocols as we start to implement changes. Our current updates for this summer term include:
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Continued mask wearing inside the office and following of the KCPH Safe Reopening Guidelines
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Everyone entering and staying in the office (not just picking up something in the foyer) needs to be fully vaccinated. Anyone not fully vaccinated needs to wear a mask and meet outside in the courtyard.
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Everyone entering the office for the first time needs to complete this Vaccination Record.
- Meetings between fully vaccinated persons can be longer than 30 mins.
- There can be up to 10 fully vaccinated people in the office at one time.
If you haven’t already, please complete this Volunteer Survey to let us know your preferences and comfort level for volunteering in the fall. Thank you for helping us as we go through this transition, please let us know if you have any questions.
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Conversations and systemic change and white supremacy are never easy, but in order to dismantle the status quo, they have to happen. At Literacy Source, we partner with a wonderfully diverse group of individuals, and we are committed to ensuring that all members of our community feel welcome and heard.
Two of our staff members, Ruth Diaz and Cheryl Mineer, both Americorps members, recently created our BLM banner, which includes a powerful graphic and displays our BLM statement. Here is some input from them on why DEI work is important and what inspired them in the creation of the banner.
Why is DEI work important for all companies/organizations, and especially for Literacy Source?
Cheryl: I think it’s important for all institutions to think long and hard about how they have profited from exclusionary practices and then do the work of fixing them, but this is particularly true for educational institutions. Education has long been promoted as the means of overcoming inequalities all while perpetuating those inequalities both tacitly and explicitly. In order for education to live up to its liberatory promise - a promise that is dear to many of our students - deep reflection and sincere equity work is necessary.
Ruth: Literacy Source began their DEI work this past Fall and had created a variety of committees to begin this work. I was in one of the committees, the Land acknowledgment committee. We were committed in creating a statement that expressed Literacy Source’s commitment to Social Justice that correlated with the organizations mission and values. Literacy Source works with communities who are affected by changes that happen within our country. To let our students, know that we stand with them and are here for them as a team we created both a Land acknowledgement and Black Lives Matter Statement.
What inspired you in the creation of the BLM banner?
Cheryl: I think when a message is important, it needs to be expressed in symbols and not just words. Communicating respect and love for our BIPOC students, coworkers and community members should be legible in every language.
Ruth: I decided to use the closed fist symbol as it has been a symbol for black power for a long time in US history. I felt the image depicted the strength and unity our community needs, to know that Literacy Source stands with Black Lives and that we are allies to all who step into our classrooms.
Within the closed fist, I felt that the image needed more strength, I decided to add native Seattle artist and activist, Eddie Ray Walker, Black Mural, called “Bearers of Culture.” This mural to me depicts the strength of many black women in our country the strength to fight. With this I added the colors to symbolize Africa red, green and black and Literacy Source yellow as the background. I felt this image expressed why we are working with our students and why we will fight to continue to be allies for our community.
Many thanks to Ruth, Cheryl, and the rest of the Literacy Source community for your openness and responsiveness to courageous conversations. We look forward to continuing the work that must happen to challenge and rethink the current system of inequity and racial oppression.
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Teaching Tip: Optimizing Gmail Settings |
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Cheryl Mineer, Digital Literacy Instructor
Tech tutors are often asked to help students practice navigating their Literacy Source Gmail accounts. For those who are used to Gmail, it can be easy to overlook just how user un-friendly the default settings can be: the small font, the bright white glare. Or worse, it can be easy to assume that inbox customization is only for seasoned users and not beginners. In fact, by making Gmail easier and more enjoyable to use, beginners are more likely to become seasoned users.
To that end, here are five accessibility/customization options found through Gmail’s “Settings” icon that my students have found helpful.
1) Theme – This setting allows you to select a background image for your inbox. Many of my older students found a darker image easier to look at than the default white background and the customization aspect also made their inboxes feel more like, well, theirs.
2) Reading Pane – This affects where emails you are actively reading show up on the screen. Selecting the “right of inbox” or “below inbox” options will enable students to read their emails with less clicking on difficult-to-see words or icons.
3) Language – Translates your inbox commands (not your emails) into another language. This is especially helpful when teaching the uses for different folders.
4) Default Text Style – Changes the font and font size your composed messages will use. This can make writing emails easier for some students. Be sure to explain that this only affects the messages they compose, not the ones they receive.
5) Signature – This setting lets you create a phrase that automatically appears at the end of your email messages. While this setting is just for fun, it is another way for students to be creative and develop ownership of their email. Just remember to keep the signatures light and not too personal.
In addition to creating a more user-friendly Gmail experience with your learner, exploring these options is a practical way to hone skills like menu navigation, decision making and other feats of digital agility. They’re also a great way to build learner confidence through small tasks that show immediate results.
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Fall Remote Tutor Training!
Registration is open for the Fall Remote Tutor Training on Saturday Sept. 18th 10am – 12:30pm. This training covers first tutoring sessions and adapting learning activities to a remote tutoring environment. It also includes a parallel workshop for matched/experienced tutors who would like to address specific tutoring/learning challenges.
New Tutors: please complete the online Pre-Activities before attending the training. Matched/Experienced Tutors: please submit your questions or topics you would like to discuss to philipm@lteracysource.org.
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New Volunteer Orientation |
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Please help us spread the word!
Our next New Volunteer Orientation on August 4. Individuals can register online here with their email address to receive the online link on the day of orientation.
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Nobuko Miyamoto And Friends: "Not Yo' Butterfly"
Thursday, July 22, 2021, 6 – 7:15pm (Seattle Public Library, Online, free)
Please join us for an evening with artist, musican and activist Nobuko Miyamoto, whose new book, Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love and Revolution was just published by the University of California Press. Joining her at this special Seattle book tour stop are University of Washington professor Vincent Schleitwiler, Ph.D, spoken word artist and UW Senior Artist in Residence Anida Yoeu Ali, UW Professor and Women Who Rock organizer Michelle Habell-Pallan, artist and designer Asiyah Ayubbi and Community Art Activist and Organizer Linda M. Ando. Deborah Wong, editor of Not Yo' Butterfly, will moderate the program. Registration required.
Shakespeare in the Park: Comedy of Errors
During the summer months Seattle Shakespeare Company presents free, outdoor productions of classical plays performed in parks throughout the Puget Sound region. Grab a picnic, bring your family and join us for some free Shakespeare in the parks! Five actors trade multiple roles among each other in Shakespeare’s side-splitting comedy about the mayhem created by sets of twins searching for their lost family.
Sergio Troncoso, Octavio Solis & Domingo Martinez
Thursday, July 29, 6pm (Elliot Bay Book Company, Online, free)
Sergio Troncoso, author of such books as The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son, and Crossing Borders, as well as a resident faculty member of the Yale Writers’ Workshop, is for this evening and occasion also an editor, as he and two contributors to his edited anthology, Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in Between Worlds (Texas A&M University Press) read from and discuss their work tonight. Two writers based here in the Northwest, Domingo Martinez (The Boy Kings of Texas, My Heart is a Drunken Compass) and playwright Octavio Solis, are expected to join Sergio Toncoso for this virtual program. Nepantla Familias includes over twenty writers, Reyna Grande, Francisco Cantú, Rigoberto González, and Helena Maria Villamontes among them.
Free family-friendly summer festival in Magnolia
Magnolia Summerfest includes a parade Saturday at 10 a.m., live music, food vendors, a beer & wine garden, weekend art fair, and kids’ activities.
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Important Dates and Center Closures |
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Literacy Source's summer term began on July 12 and will finish on August 26.
During the COVID-19 Stay at Home period, Literacy Source is open for remote tutoring, online video classes, and online learning programs. Check our website for updates, call 206-782-2050, or email us with specific questions. Click here for answers to frequently asked questions.
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Miss any of our past volunteer newsletters? You can access archived newsletters at the bottom of the Volunteer Resources of our webpage.
Missed the Tutor Blog? Here is the latest entry.
Literacy Source recognizes the inherent dignity, equality, and value of every person and strives to create and maintain a learning community that is respectful and welcoming. To foster and maintain a safe and inclusive community of respect, openness, understanding, and civility, it is crucial that students, volunteers, and staff are aware of their rights and options when confronting a discriminatory or bias-related incident. To read more, click here.
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Literacy Source is on the traditional lands of the Duwamish people, and we pay our respect to elders both past and present. To support the revival of Duwamish culture and the vitality of the Duwamish Tribe, please consider signing this petition to federally recognize them, or consider making a donation to Real Rent Duwamish.
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Literacy Source | 206-782-2050 | 3200 NE 125th St. Seattle, WA 98125 | www.literacysource.org |
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