Guest Blog: Persons and People and English Oddities

Morgan Knezovich, 

Adult Literacy League Board Member

Being a part of a literacy organization, I’ve come to accept that oddities within the English language are just my thing. A recent conversation with volunteers and staff at the League led to a discussion on the appropriate use of the term persons and people. One of our literacy tutors had not known quite how to answer her student's question about this usage. So, if this question has ever crossed your mind or you just need a quick grammatical refresher, here’s something I put together just for you:

International Day of Families--May 15!

This upcoming Tuesday on May 15 the United Nations and the rest of the world will be celebrating International Day of Families! This is an annual celebration for families all around the world and this year the focus is on “ensuring work family balance”. The United Nations wants to call attention to all families and how each of them provides economically and emotionally for each member. To celebrate this special day take some time to learn about another culture! Ask your child to name as many countries as they can. From there, ask your child to pick one country that they would like to know more about. After you have your country, do some research! What do their families look like? What do their houses look like? Do both the boys and girls go to school? You can find that information on the internet, in books or by having conversation with people from that culture.

Happy Family Literacy Friday everyone!

The Ultimate Bedtime Story.

Hey everyone, Happy Family Literacy Friday! Today we're going to tell you all about an adventure that will require to use your imagination and a few books. Grab a large sheet, your child's favorite blanket and book and head to your living room because its tent building time! What kid or adult doesn't love buidling a tent, castle or giant mansion right in their own home? You can get your child using their imagination and excited about reading for free right in the comfort of your family room. You may want to choose a story about kids going on a camping trip, a princess in a castle or Native Americans. There are so many ways to get creative and have a few good laughs along the way. You and your family could tell the stories in different voices or even act out the scenes. This adventurous activity will be sure to become a favorite for everyone!

See, big kids like to have adventures too!

A Card Of Their Own.

Do you have a library card? Does your child?


If your answer is no it looks like you and your family have an adventure in your near future! Having a library card is a wonderful and free commodity offered all over Florida. With a library card you'll be able to check out books, music, DVD's and even books on tape. Not only can you check out iteams you can also take classes at your local library teaching you to use a computer, type on a keyboard or set up an email address.


The reason we decided to write about this is because all of us Public Allies use our cards all the time. What I personally love to do is check out books online and have them delievered to my house! It's such a fun surprise to come home from a long day and see a bright blue bag from the library with my book in it.

So This weekend round up the gang and head to your local library. Have your children sign themselves up for their card, this way they feel a sense of ownership over their reading, and they'll have a card on it with their name! They will feel like rockstars.


Free books, computers, classes, DVD and music? It would be silly to not take part in these free and wonderful things. If you're nervous or unsure of how to find a library around you, we have posted the websites in the tri-county area of Orange, Osceola and Seminole County.


Alright families, now its time to head down to your local library and sign up for your very own library card, we promise you'll love it!




http://www.ocls.info/


http://www.osceolalibrary.org/


http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/Libraries/index.aspx

I Spy -- Literacy Style!

So if we haven’t given you enough Family Literacy Friday Fun Games, we thought we’d give you another!  This week we are going to take one of the Public Allies’ favorite childhood games, “I Spy”, and add in some literacy fun.


If you are not familiar with the game “I Spy” it is simply a game of clues and guessing.  For this literacy style version of “I Spy” we will start by having the parent be the person who “spies” the object.  While keeping the object a secret from the “guessers”, pick an object that is visible in the room.  Next, create a statement beginning with “I spy” followed by a characteristic of that object. For example if the object you “spied” was a banana, you might say “I spy something yellow.” Continue your “I Spy” statements until the “guessers” have guessed the object!


Now for our literacy twist to the game, we’re going to bring in some phonics.  For each new object, have the first “I spy” statement begin “I spy something that begins with the [insert sound of the first letter of the object] sound”.  For example, if the object you chose was a map, your first “I Spy” statement would be “I spy something that begins with the [m] sound” If you need a refresher on phonics, check out our previous blog post on Phonics Fun!  If your child does not guess the object after your first “I spy” statement, continue on with the game as we described above.  So if your object was a map, for example, after your first phonics statement, your next “I Spy” statement could be “I spy something that has many colors on it.” If the "I Spy" statements that follow the initial phonics "I Spy" statement, led the child to guess a object that does not begin with the [m] sound, you might want to remind them that the object has [m] sound. For example if the second clue "I spy something that has many colors on it" and your child says "Blanket!" you could ask them "Does Blanket begin with the [m] sound?"


If your child grasps on to this game quickly and you think they might want something a little more challenging, have your child “spy” something and practice their phonics!

For more “I Spy” fun, check out the “I Spy” books from Scholastic! *Available for rent at your local library :)

Happy Friday Everyone!

Give a Gold Star

A great way to get young children excited to read is by giving them an incentive. A wonderful way to do this is set up a fun and colorful chart in the child's room with a list of five or ten books. Whenever a book is read from start to end, have your little reader put a star next to the book. Make sure to get the whole family involved with this one, your teens who are reading much longer novels can have a chart in their rooms too, so that their younger sibling can see that reading is for everyone at any age! Now, every child is motivated by different things and since you know your kid or kid best, it will be up to you to figure out the perfect prize for wonderful reading. Maybe it will be stickers or maybe it will be that after reading seven books they will get a trip to the community pool, park or library. We would suggest to not have the prize be more time with the television, we do want them to eventually realize that reading alone is a reward!


If you want your child, students or other family members to be successful readers who are motivated to learn, make sure that those children know you are their biggest fan and that you won't give up on them. Once they know this they are sure to build their confidence. It's as simple as saying good job, or patiently helping them sound out a word, you are their reading cheerleader and will have more of an impact than you will ever know!


Happy Friday and have fun reading everybody!

Literacy-Rich Homes

One of the best ways to promote reading within your family is to create a literacy-rich environment at home. The University of Missouri wrote an article recently that has some suggestions for a “literacy-rich environment” that we thought would be really helpful and we’ve listed some below:


1) Create nametags! Buy index cards (or use little pieces of paper) and tape them to things your children use every day around the house. Remember to use lower case and upper case letter as appropriate.

2) Establish a “literacy center” in your house (whether that’s in a family office or next to the family computer) and stock it with pens, pencils, markers, paper, envelopes, greeting cards, stationary, stamps, a list of teacher’s and children’s names with photos, and maybe even a mailbox for each member of the family.



3) Be a role model! Write notes often, keep a calendar and/or daily planner, post a list of your child’s responsibilities and constantly introduce new vocabulary words (maybe even establish a “word of the day” and use it as many times as you can during the day).

4) Play word and language GAMES! Check Out our previous blog posts for some ideas :)

Happy Friday everyone and Have a great holiday weekend!