Winnebago County
Literacy Council

"We teach so others may reach"

106 Washington Ave
Oshkosh, WI 54901
920.236.5185
www.winlit.org

The Winnebago County Literacy Council (WCLC) has been providing literacy services to adults throughout Winnebago County since its inception in 1989. The primary focus of the agency is to provide one-to-one tutoring opportunities to adults reading at or below a fourth-grade level. The WCLC utilizes trained volunteer tutors to teach adult students how to read and apply basic survival literacy skills to everyday life.

Please contact us if you know an individual who is in need of literacy services. Referrals may be made to Raissa Reimer, our Student Services Coordinator, at reimer@winlit.org, or by calling 236-5219 x 4802.

New Benefactors!

Each month, we acknowledge our new or renewing benefactors. These are hard working business people and friends who are willing to share their resources to see the Winnebago County Literacy Council and its programs grow.
To view the list of new or renewing benefactors, click here!

Celebrating 20 Years in 2009!

We have much to be thankful for as we enter into 2009. As we celebrate two decades of service in Winnebago County, we are proud of our student's accomplishments.

With your support, we hope to help hundreds more families in our next 20 years, as adult and family literacy remains a critical concern in our community and across the nation. But we need your help to do so.

We understand that these are tough economic times, so we want you to know that a gift of any amount can make a difference. Please consider donating just $20 per month in 2009 in honor of our 20 years of service in Winnebago County.

You may make monthly contribution to the Winnebago County Literacy Council by having funds from your savings or checking account automatically deposited to the WCLC. You simply decide on the amount you want to contribute, click on our the credit/debit authorization form, complete and return the form to us, and we'll do the rest!

Credit/Debit Authorization Form

Carrie Birling from Capital Credit Union presents Dana Koch, WCLC Adult and Family Educator with a check. Capital Credit Union employees supported the Council this past holiday season.

Younker's Community Day

Saturday, Febuary 28, 2009

From now until February 28th, the Winnebago County Literacy Council is partnering with the Bon-Ton family of stores through the sale of coupon booklets, good toward store merchandise. With 100% of booklet sales benefiting the WCLC, you can feel good going shopping and great about giving back!

This valuable coupon booklet can be purchased for just $5 each, good toward great merchandise at the Bon-Ton family of stores during the special One Day Community Day Sale on February 28th.

What will customers receive in each booklet?With each $5 coupon booklet purchase, customers receive:

• One $10 coupon, good toward any item of $10 or more (exclusions apply)
• Eight additional coupons, each good for up to 20% off one item (exclusions apply)—in addition to our special One Day Sale prices.

Pick up your booklet at the Literacy Council office.

Questions, call Liz at 236-5185.

Support WCLC with Goodsearch.com and raise money!

What if the WCLC earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

Use http://www.goodsearch.com/ as your search engine - we earn a penny for every search you do.

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would ny search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter the Winnebago County Literacy Council as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!

"We Care" Pick n' Save

You can support the WCLC each time you shop at Pick n' Save. Stop at the customer service desk and ask to have the WCLC account number (939250) assigned to your card. Each time you use your card we get a donation!

Finding Inspiration Through the WCLC

Kathleen Wittman

It’s said that inspiration can be found in your own backyard and here’s a perfect example.

I was the Oshkosh Public Library loading up on books about how to start a business, when I noticed a lot of bustling going on. I heard someone say the How Do You Spell Chocolate Spelling Bee was about to begin.

Intrigued, I followed the crowd into the Waters Building and settled down in a seat looking forward to a relaxing hour. But it wasn’t long until I found myself holding my breath each time a bright, courageous  middle schooler stood up to spell a word. Celebratory, ophidian, hifalutin.Yikes!

And then the word Bailiwick was tossed out.

I couldn’t help whispering, “Bailiwick. Bailiwick.” I like the sound of it, but what’s a bailiwick? Lucky for me the student didn’t know either and asked for a definition. Bailiwick is the district of a bailiff. But it also means one’s area of interest or expertise, as in what’s your bailiwick.

“That’s it!” I practically screamed. Bailiwick. Bailiwick Workshops. Since my business idea involved Oshkosh business owners sharing their expertise to people interested in learning about it, the name fit perfectly.

A year later, Bailiwick Workshops is now a business, with classes beginning in March. As a way to give back, I’m donating $2 for every workshop held this year to the Winnebago County Literacy Council so that others will find some inspiration to succeed through literacy.

More information about Bailiwick Workshops is available at www.BailiwickWorkshops.com. 

What's New

Tutor Resource

Armchair Grammarian
http://community-2.webtv.net/@HH!F9!71!91A4C51D649F/solis-boo/Grammar1/

New use for old buckets. Make a magnetic spelling game!

Put sets of plastic letters that kids usually spell things on the fridge in the bucket or an ugly bow. Have young and old pick out a predetermined number of letters and put them on a small metal board that usually come with the sets of letters.  The challenge is to make a word.  Usually with the younger set, it is a three letter word.  With adults it is a four or five letter word.  Once they've created a word encourage your students to comes back for another go at it. 

Programs

Location:  Oshkosh Public Library

Dates: February 16th through the 19th (Monday - Thursday)

Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm

Dates: March16th through the 19th (Monday - Thursday)

Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Check our website, www.winlit.org, or contact us for 2009 training dates.

Location:  Oshkosh Public Library

Date: Saturday, February 28th

Time: 9:00am-1:30pm

Date: Saturday, March 28  

Time: 9:00am-1:30pm

Help open someone's world to opportunities once never thought possible.
Give the gift of reading -- register for a workshop today!!

One-on-One Literacy Tutoring

WCLC provides one-to-one tutoring opportunities to adults and families in the areas of Basic Literacy, ESL, Family Literacy, Math, Workplace Literacy, and Citizenship.

One-on-One Family Literacy Tutoring Program

WCLC will train volunteer tutors to work with families at the library, in their homes, or another mutually agreed upon location in order to improve literacy levels and promote learning together as a family. This program hopes to empower parents to see themselves as their child’s first and best teacher.

Family Literacy Program

The Family Literacy Program serves refugee families needing to learn survival English. This Family literacy Program provides an Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for parents while their children received age-ppropriate learning in an Early Learning Classroom at the same time.

The Family Literacy Program celebrated the holidays. We appreciate the continued support of the J.J. Keller Foundation and the Oshkosh Women's Fund. See the slide show.

For information on any of these programs, contact Raissa Reimer at reimer@winlit.org or call 236-5219 ext. 4802.

Volunteer Spotlight

Eunice E. Eggenberger

It is going on four years since I completed the Literacy Council’s training and was introduced to my adult student that had been in the program for some time.  This assignment has been a blessing for both of us.   

With previous experience with learning disabilities, I soon recognized that the reason my student was unable to read was because of a learning disability.  With help from the council, literature from UWO education staff, testing by a professional physician, a different approach is being used to help my student.  We are using the Patterns in Spelling series.  About our second year, I gave my student a dictionary as a birthday present which has become a part of our weekly sessions.  Just knowing there is a reason for the inability to read has given him confidence that he will be able to read too.  I made him aware of many famous people, like Henry Winkler (The Fonz), who have learning disabilities which has given him additional encouragement.

A month ago, I suggested he use his home computer for homework.  That suggestion has led to stimulate more interest in use of the computer.  He, on his own, has started using the dictionary on the computer.  After putting in the spelling of our new lesson words, it verbally reads back to him the correct pronunciation and the definition.  This is an additional help for by inserting the word, seeing and hearing the word plus the definition helps for association and retention. 

Overall this has been a very rewarding experience for me, progress has been slow, but to see how much it has helped him personally and in his work makes it worthwhile.     

Events

Who will be the 2009 Champions?

The Oshkosh Public Library Team Reclaims Their Title as the 2008 Bee Champs! Can they retain their title again this year? And will St. John Neumann Middle School Team be able to repeat?

You’re invited to join us at the Eighth Annual Corporate and Middle School Spelling Bee, entitled, “How Do You Spell Chocolate?” This fun competition, with a free chocolate sampling and silent auction will take place on February 21, 2009 at the Oshkosh Public Library.
It’s a great, grownup spelling bee with rules, and judges, and a spell caller just waiting to trip you up on a difficult word! The winning team will receive a trophy and plaque; the plaque will be a “traveling” plaque that will follow the winners of future spelling bees. To register your team call 920.236.5185.

Interested in being a sponsor of this year’s event? Several sponsorship levels are still available.

Join us again in September 2009 for our 2nd Annual

Team Scrabble Fundraiser

Becket's Restaurant

City Center

Wanted!

Adult Literacy Tutoring Program

Cassette players with recording option

Blank cassette tapes

Family Literacy Program

Gift certificates to grocery stores to purchase snacks

Juice

Crackers

Napkins and paper plates

Play dough

Office Supplies

Dry eraser markers (wipe boards)

Copy paper

Manila file folders

Black and color ink cartridges (Black is 96 Color is 97)

Of Interest

Business or articles of interest to the WCLC readership.

Do you have an article or item of interest to the business or education community that will benefit our tutors or students? We'd enjoy your input! This is a great way to spotlight your company, message or name! Contact Liz Rice Janzen!

Wisconsin Shows Improvement in Adult Literacy

The National Center for Education Statistics recently released a report showing an estimate of the number of adults who lack basic literacy skills in Wisconsin by county. The report posted online on Jan. 8, 2009 shows that Wisconsin improved from 10% of adults lacking Basic Prose Literacy Skills (BPLS) in 1992 to 7% by 2003 according to the NAAL (National Assessment of Adult Literacy) comparison. This change seems to be part of a national trend among other states, with the exception of border states or states with a high immigrant population like Florida where the number of adults at the lowest level of basic literacy skills rose from 15% in 1992 to 20% in 2003, and in California where an even bigger increase occurred with the numbers jumping from 15% to 23%.

Adults who lack BPLS range from being unable to read and understand any written information in English to being able to locate easily identifiable information in short, commonplace prose text, but nothing more advanced. Adults who were not able to take the assessment because they were not able to communicate in English or Spanish (i.e. language barrier cases) are included in the indirect estimates and classified as lacking basic literacy because they can be considered to be at the lowest level of English literacy.

Here is a link to a brief interview with Michele Erikson, Executive Director of Wisconsin Literacy, on Wisconsin Public Radio about the statistics for Wisconsin:  http://wpr.org/news/newsstories.cfm#ADLITERACY.

An interactive Web tool that shows the National Assessment of Adult Literacy data for all states and counties and the full report can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx.

TEST YOUR LITERACY I.Q.

Can you match the reading level required to the functions listed below?

Use each level only once. 5.9 means fifth grade, ninth month.

5.9       6.0       8.0       9.9       10.0    12.0

1. Aspirin bottle instructions
2. Driver’s license manual
3. TV dinner instructions
4. Insurance policies
5. Functional reading level
6. Social Security guide

Answers 1.(10) 2.(6) 3.(8) 4.(12) 5.(5.9) 6.(9.9)

Contact Us!

The easiest way to contact us is using email - you've seen our email address throughout - that of Liz Rice Janzen! Our phone number and mail address are:

920.236.5185 phone
920.236.5227 fax
106 Washington Ave. Oshkosh, WI 54901

Closing Notes:

Winnebago County Literacy Council relies exclusively on volunteers and gifts from our community to serve in our community. If you are willing to volunteer time or give a gift of money, thank you!