Washington Literacy Council
| WISH LIST
$100: supplies, books, and
teaching materials for 1 tutor/student
pair;
$500: 1 family workshop teaching
parents early literacy skills;
$12,000: a
part-time professional class instructor
|
In Washington DC, 36% of the residents are functionally illiterate. In the two
poorest wards, 7 and 8, over 50% have difficulty reading bus schedules, filling
out job applications, applying for drivers’ licenses, deciphering prescriptions,
reading a story to a child. So the Washington Literacy Council takes a
no-nonsense approach, addressing all five skills necessary for successful
reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Classes are offered at basic,
intermediate, and advanced levels in reading, vocabulary, and writing. Adult students meet once a week with a
volunteer for individualized study, and attend one group class. In all, over 10,000 volunteer hours helped 200 adult
students improve their reading skills (tutors call it “the volunteer experience of a lifetime”). Bringing the program
out into the community, a family literacy workshop serves the needy at Martha’s Table and Hope Apartments,
and new adult classes will soon begin at Johnson Memorial Baptist Church in Ward 7. The world opens up to
those who can read. You can make it happen.
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