National Volunteer Week: Remote Learning
During National Volunteer Week, the Library celebrates its VITAL volunteers for their incredible efforts in support of adult literacy!
Downtown Library: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Ellettsville Branch: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM
For more information about VITAL, call 812-349-3173, email vital [at] mcpl.info, visit the office on the second floor of the Downtown Library, or join the VITAL Facebook Group.
During National Volunteer Week, the Library celebrates its VITAL volunteers for their incredible efforts in support of adult literacy!
For the first of an ongoing series of conversations with our volunteers and learners, we asked VITAL volunteer LuAnne to chat with tutor Dennis Davoren and learner Adam Garmon about what makes their partnership successful.
The ILF Tom Zupancic Literacy in Libraries Award recognizes community advocacy for literacy by an individual or organization in cooperation with a library. VITAL received this accolade for promoting the importance of literacy and adult education at the library. Since VITAL’s inception in 1977, our program has helped over 6,500 learners achieve their personal learning goals.
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is where you can find weekly lessons using current editorial cartoons, from Newspapers in Education and the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists.
The most effective way to speak a new language quickly is to learn the 800 to 1,000 most common lemmas (word families). A lemma is a root word and all its variations, for example: do, does, did, doing; blue, bluer, bluest, blueish, etc. If you know the 800 most frequently-used lemmas in English, you'll understand 75% of everyday spoken English.
Thanks to WFHB Community Radio for featuring VITAL volunteer Mary DePew recently on their Activate! news program. Mary’s herculean volunteer efforts in VITAL have directly impacted the lives of nearly 100 English language learners locally.
Digital technology is everywhere, and it’s here to stay. Applying for jobs, paying bills, or checking the weather can be done anywhere there is internet access—if you know how to do it.
Digital learning tools also help adult learners succeed, for a number of reasons:
VITAL's impact in the community is highighted in "Beyond Reading, Adult Literacy Is Survival," by Michelle Gottschlich in Limestone Post. The article, featuring an interview with VITAL learner Reva Duke (above), also discusses the broader topic of adult literacy and new services for readers.
Listening to English is essential for improving reading skills. But what sounds more engaging—learning about the silent “e” rule, or the thrilling adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Both are important, but hearing the written word satisfies the brain’s thirst for knowledge and information, even beyond our ability to read independently. Exposure to the sound of expressive reading, dramatic pauses, and phrasing helps with reading comprehension (understanding what we’re reading). And hearing new vocabulary in context requires us to draw conclusions, improving our critical thinking skills.