This episode talks with Wampanoag scholars Paula Peters and Linda Coombs, who tell us the real story of Thanksgiving, from an Indigenous Perspective.

Back by popular demand! Gather a group of your favorite people and battle it out with other teams to see who the trivia masters of Literacy Source are. Five rounds of entertaining and puzzling questions for you to solve, with prizes going to the top three teams. Don't have a team? You can enter as a single player and be added to one, or you can choose to play solo.

Contact Phil Zoshak to sign up!

I've been so fortunate to return to Literacy Source and work with students who are interested in improving their writing and sharing their unique ideas with me, with each other and hopefully with the wider community. The writing workshop has focused on curriculum choices that rely on linguistic and cultural input from students through storytelling. We have had really great conversations about the stories that students brought into the class and were able to both develop writing skills and share important parts of both culture and language with each other. Our stories represent a wide range of topics, from a haunted castle to a forest spirit, from a Monkey King to true life accounts of survival. This workshop has been an important part of a broader focus on traditional stories as one way to approach language variation, encourage the translingual identities of our students and resist the colonial legacy and destructive homogenizing norm of “standard” English.

Our 19th annual Stay at Home Tea is our favorite drive of the year. This is a great opportunity to give without ever leaving your home. We invite you to sit back, relax, sip some tea (or your favorite beverage) and think about the impact you can have with a donation to Literacy Source. To learn more and give please visit www.literacysource.org/tea

We've all been challenged over the last 18 months to adapt to online teaching. So many aspects of in-person instruction were taken away, and suddenly we found ourselves wrangling with technology in ways we didn't expect. Even though in-person instruction will make a comeback in the near future, remote learning has gained traction with students and teachers. COVID has highlighted just how critical technology skills are for teachers and students, and since remote learning is here to stay, reflecting on our remote teaching skills by using lists can help us be better teachers and tutors, in-person and remotely.

Turning on the lights, straightening out the chairs, and strategically placing our coffee somewhere it won't get spilled are standard moves when a teacher enters a classroom. As remote teachers and tutors, we turn on our computers, plug in our headphones, and strategically place our coffee somewhere it won't get spilled. In a classroom, we know how to open a book and make use of scratch paper to draw a diagram. When teaching remotely, we need to think about the steps we take to teach through computers, and assume our students don't know them as well as we do. After all, if you had a student that didn't know how to use a pencil, or use a book, it would be immediately obvious you'd need to teach them how, wouldn't it?

Books have tables of contents, page numbers, charts, and images that we learned how to use in our youth. Digital resources have these things too, but they look and function differently enough that you might not see the similarity. How do you know where to click to maximize or minimize a window (turning a page)? How do you know to open a new browser tab (opening another book to reference new information)? How do you know to close Zoom when class is over (closing a book and putting it away)? Make a list of all the little steps you take in your tutoring sessions with students. Examine that list and think about what each little step is, and how it may be analogous to something you've done in-person, or with good ole' pen and paper. Next, imagine your students don't know those digital steps (or how to complete them).

As I write this message to you, I feel confident because I know the steps I need to take and how my computer will respond when I poke it. I can use the shift key for capital letters, the mouse wheel to comfortably reposition the screen to my liking, spellcheck to catch my many typing errors, and copy and paste to quickly remove or reposition words and phrases. My students don't know all of these things and how they work. They don't have the experience, and nobody has taught them. As a teacher, I need to teach these things to my students. I can't assume they know these little steps, and what each button on the keyboard or screen will do.

Take a minute and make a list of the first 20 things you do when getting ready to tutor a student on Zoom. What are you clicking on and why? Do you imagine your student follows the same routine as you? When you look at your list, think about how you would explain, or show a student where they are clicking and why. What images can you use to help you explain? What Zoom tools could help you demonstrate? How would you simplify and streamline your language to make your directions clear? Zoom uses your camera, so how can gestures be effective in remote tutoring?

Once your student knows how to use their computer, they can start to focus on language and academic goals. As a tutor, you need to be aware of and prepared to teach the little digital academic steps needed for a student to successfully learn remotely. Take a moment, make your list, and use it to connect with your student so the learning experience for both of you is aligned and productive.

Congratulations to Sierra Zima and Holly Schwichtenberg for completing one year of service at Literacy Source.

Zawadi P., from Tanzania.

Leyla O., from Somalia.

November 19-21, 2021, (Yaw Theater, $25-$100)

Seattle Butoh Festival 2021 FemAlchemy Nov 19th, 20th and 21st performances by DAIPAN artists all three evenings and performance and workshop with guest artist Vangeline from New York City . Performances 7:30 pm at YAW Theater Georgetown with 11/20/21 Saturday workshop by Vangeline from 12 to 4 pm at YAW Theater and 11/21/21 Sunday Workshop by Joan Laage (Kogut Butoh) 12 to 4pm at Base (next door to YAW)

November 20-21 (National Nordic Museum, free)

On November 20 and 21, 2021, the National Nordic Museum will host its 44th annual Julefest. This cultural community event in Ballard transforms the Museum grounds into a traditional outdoor Christmas market similar to those widely attended throughout the Nordic region.

November 26-28, (Duwamish Longhouse, free)

Escape the rain and join us the weekend of November 26th, 27th, and 28th from 10 am - 5 pm daily. Enjoy shopping from native vendors and purchase gifts for friends, family and yourself!

Our next New Volunteer Orientation (via Zoom) will be on December 1st at either 1pm or 7pm. Potential volunteers are invited to register online here. 

Miss any of our past volunteer newsletters? You can access archived newsletters at the bottom of the Volunteer Resources of our webpage.