A publication of Literacy Volunteers of Casper, an accredited affiliate of ProLiteracy America

Literacy Link

Summer Hours ABE/GED© Center Werner Technical Center Room 115 • 268-2230 Mon. – 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tues.-Wed. – 8 a.m.-8 p.m.Thurs. – 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

Mandatory New Student Orientation for GED Students:

Tuesdays – 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m.

GED testing at Casper College by appointment

Spring 2010 • Volume XXII, Issue 2

by Biruta KearnsI met Anne when she, with Rainer,

came back home to Casper, came back appropriately enough, to the Werner Technical Center built by the Rognstad Construction Co. in 1966. We both worked at the Adult Basic Education/GED Center. I was the outreach instructor for the homeless, and Anne taught English as a Second Language classes.

She burst upon the scene, blonde hair tousled by the wind, wearing a long, flowing skirt and Roman legionnaire sandals with the enthusiasm, creativity, laughter, and empathy for which we knew and loved her. She never criticized and always encouraged her students. Perhaps a childhood memory of being castigated for drawing a vase with “too many flowers!” played a part. Undoubtedly, people who think there can be such a thing as “too many flowers” should never become teachers.

Anne used her many talents well – talents for teaching, organizing, writing, painting, landscaping, music both vocal and instrumental, entertaining – along with Rainer. I once asked Anne how she met Rainer. She said, “Through the yellow pages.” “Escort ser….?” “NO! Banjo lessons!”

After one of their musical at-home gatherings, my son said, “It’s good to see that old people can still have fun.” This was not altogether an accurate statement because very often young people also were included, appreciated, and nurtured as musical participants in these gatherings. My daughter-in-law said, “I’m going to have a house like this someday.”

I would like to share a couple of quotes which I think are apropos Anne:

Tosca sings: “I lived for art. I lived for love. Never did I harm a living creature.”

Edna St Vincent Millay writes: “My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But, ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – It gives a lovely light.”

I can’t imagine Anne having foes. But we – all her friends, family, colleagues, and the Casper community – are lucky to have had the “lovely light” of Anne Rognstad shine upon us.

Please join the Casper College ABE/GED Center program at our annual GED graduation ceremony this year on Saturday, May 15 at 2 p.m. in the Swede Erickson Thunderbird Gymnasium. We expect approximately 100 GED graduates to participate in the traditional ceremony and a reception will immediately follow. Our graduation speaker this year is Senator Mike Enzi. Please join us for this wonderful celebration!

It’s time to celebrate!

Shaun Donnelly 2010 grad

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Literacy Link

Success BREEDS SuccessIn the last issue of Literacy Link, we

reported on the federal and state budget cuts our center had received

for the program year and how those cuts would impact our program. Closing our center during the summer was just one of the detriments to those budget cuts. We are now happy to report that we have received two grants that will not only cover the cuts received, but will also allow expansion of the Casper College ABE/GED program (if only temporarily).

Through a Central Wyoming Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) grant, our program will be able to remain open during the summer. This grant also provides for educational materials, professional development opportunities, and student testing fees.

The other grant our program received, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds provided through the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services (DWS), has allowed our center to expand its offerings to jobseekers. The Career Readiness Skill Building and Assessment program will allow jobseekers to hone their skills through KeyTrain, a software program for those wishing to earn a bronze, silver or gold Career Readiness certificate, which can show an employer that a new hire is a wise investment. Participants in the program will also have the opportunity to complete workshops on interviewing, basic computer skills, and writing resumes and cover letters. Patti Coleman is the new WorkKeys assessment coordinator for this grant, and Sue Sigler is the instructor. The other welcome addition through this grant is Carmen Springer-

Davis. Carmen is the half-time transitions coordinator who will work with students on work readiness skills, career assessment, and transitioning into postsecondary training and education. Funding for the ARRA grant will run through May of 2011.

We are grateful to BOCES and to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services for the opportunity to partner in offering services to the Casper community. We look forward to these new partnerships, and welcome Patti and Carmen as our newest employees.

Bev Dye, ABE Director

I had been a broken and lost person for almost as long as I could remember. I was using drugs and living day to day out of a bag. On May 31, 2006, my life took an extreme turn; I was thrown in jail and

was court ordered to change my life. I had subconsciously wanted a kick in the butt to do something different and this was it. I did a small amount of time in jail and treatment. I began working a program that was making drastic changes in my life.

I moved into Seton House in November of 2006 and I began their program. This was the best place for my family to reunite with their mother. This is also where I began my studies for my GED. This had to be what I thought was the hardest thing so far, yet I knew that to become a better person, I had to persevere through the hard stuff to be the person I wanted to be. I finally took the GED test with a little pushing from my teacher, Vicky Crume. Needless to say, I passed!

The GED program offered a free course for those who passed their GED, so I decided to take it. I have been in college ever since, and I currently have a 3.6 GPA. I was also chosen for an elite award, United States Commission on Adult Basic Education (COABE) Student of the Year, and was fortunate to travel to Chicago to share my story with a thousand ABE teachers from all over the United States.

To all of the teachers who read this, thank you for believing in us and for not giving up on the tough students who don’t’ think they can do this.

Lost and Found by Melanie Cantu

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Literacy Link

Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling young adult book, “Twilight” has a Lexile level of 720L. What does this number signify? If you have children in school, you may know that it is a measurement meant to help match your child to books that are at an appropriate reading level. Well, now adults in the Casper College ABE/GED program can use it, too.

The Lexile measure is a popular educational tool that is used to link readers of all ages with leveled reading resources. It is one of the most widely adopted measures of reading ability. Lexile levels can be measured on any text, including novels, textbooks, newspapers or magazine articles.

There are actually two kinds of Lexile measures – a reader measure and a text measure. Students receive a reader measure from a reading test, the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) assessment for adults attending the ABE/GED Center, and books receive a text measure from a piece of software. Lexile does not rate content, quality or developmental suitability. It just measures both the difficulty of a text and an individual’s reading ability.

The two measures together (reader and text) help match a student with reading material that is at an appropriate difficulty level. When a reader is matched with an appropriate range he or she will encounter some level of difficulty with the text, but not enough to get frustrated. This is a good way to grow as a reader – reading a book that is not too hard but not too easy.

Once you know your student’s Lexile level, how do you find books that match? The ABE Center can help and so can your library. Books have Lexile ranges from below 0L to above 2000L. The Lexile.com website has a searchable database of thousands of books with Lexile levels. There is also a database called Novelist available at the library or from home through the library’s website, www.natronacountylibrary.org that you can use to find Lexile levels for many books.

Lexile is just one tool to link students to books. Call or visit your library at 577-READ for more information on Lexile or to get great ideas on how to match your reader to books they will love.

All About Lexile Levels By Betsy O’Neil, Reference Librarian, Natrona County Public Library

The Casper College ABE/GED Center has long been in search of an affordable software package that would allow students with special learning needs a means to utilize audio in their computer based instruction. Our most popular application, SkillsTutor is a wonderful program, but has very limited content available with audio support.

Thanks to a BOCES grant, the Casper College ABE/GED Center has purchased Merit GED Prep Bundle software with TextTalker. This package contains: science, reading, social studies, basic algebra, critical thinking skills, essay writing, grammar fitness, word problem shakeup and writing for business. The included TextTalker utility works with all subjects except math. We purchased two licenses of this software and they are currently available in our computer lab. Interested tutors/students are invited to demo the software.

New software added to inventory

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Literacy Link

America is the land of opportunity and no one knows it better than Tatiana Gomez, a recent immigrant to the United States from Colombia. She is still amazed at how relatively quickly she has acquired the American dream by just applying herself and working very hard.

In July 2007, Tatiana and her husband Andrew walked into the ABE/GED Center looking for an ESL class for Tatiana, who didn’t know a stitch of English. She was referred to the ESL instructor who advised her to wait for the August date for the beginning class, but Tatiana couldn’t wait and wanted to start right then! No, she would have to wait and start with all the rest, something difficult for this five-foot self-starter. In Colombia, this impetuous young professional had been a successful industrial engineer heading the production and exportation division of a well-established floral export company, so learning English was just another challenge.

Needless to say, she soon surpassed the students in the ESL class, devoting all her time in and outside of the classroom to learn basic English. By second semester, she was enrolled in freshman English classes at Casper College where she earned a 4.0 GPA, attended tutorials with tutors Linda Stoval and Ann O’Keefe, worked part time as a test proctor in the Casper College ACT Center, and was honored with the ESL class’s Outstanding ESL Student at the annual Literacy Volunteers of Casper Volunteer Appreciation Dinner in the spring of 2008!

Running out of English classes to take, Tatiana believed a transitional decision had to be made in regard to professional work or advanced studies. Her ESL teacher recommended advanced studies, as she needed to learn more about American business and the specialized vocabulary that it would require. On her own initiative, Tatiana opted for the University of Phoenix and mapped out her MBA in global management. She could stay in Casper with her husband and work online for her master’s degree.

Simultaneously, she filled a job opening as a translator-processor for Mountain Plains Agricultural Services and again juggled home, new systems in agricultural job counseling, working with clients from all over the world, and her demanding MBA program online every night and all weekend. In April 2010, she finished all her course work, leaving her final exams for May. She will graduate in Denver on July 10, 2010, with other regional candidates, culminating a very focused and disciplined course taken only by the fearless.

What a legacy Tatiana Gomez is for our ESL Program at Casper College! What a deserving prize this degree will be for a woman who trusted our system and her own confident, self motivated, play-by-the-rules work ethic. She often asks why more Americans don’t take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities available to them.

What’s next for Tatiana Gomez? Citizenship in August, oh, yeah!

Spirit of Cooperative Learning

Can you remember how it felt when you were learning to ride a bicycle with training wheels? Just having that extra set of wheels, even though they were small, gave you extra stability, safety and confidence. At times, when working with the men at the Casper Re-Entry Center – Therapeutic Community, our staff and volunteer’s efforts could feel like riding a bike before knowing how to balance one. You see the men at CRC have lived complicated lives. These life experiences require us to understand protocols that go beyond their own experience and comfort zone. Thanks to the training received in April, we gained the information to be successful in this challenging endeavor.

Jim Piro, deputy director of treatment at Casper Re-Entry Center, took volunteers and staff on a two-hour journey that helped us understand the rules and guidelines needed to work in a correctional facility. During this training, issues were discussed that helped us recognize and adhere to boundaries set forth by the Department of Corrections. It helped us readdress our relationships with students, which were established to keep students focused on their own success. The men at the Casper Re-Entry Center will ultimately benefit from our full understanding of how the training wheels work.

Is There a Prize for Hard Work? By Alberta Giraldo

Training Wheels

The students at the Casper College ESL Program are eagerly awaiting summer but before the year’s end, two students have volunteered to demonstrate, in English no less, how to make tamales. This is a huge feat; these students are mid-level English speakers who will have to write a speech and perform a task in front of 15 guests. Many native speakers get

sick to their stomachs even thinking about speaking in front of a crowd! But the two students, Aurora Aguilar and Sonya Lopez, are up to the task. This is their comfort zone: tamales! We thank them both for showing off their skills: speaking English and tamale making!

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Literacy Link

Service with a Smile23rd Annual Literacy Volunteers of Casper Appreciation Dinner

Spring brings joy in the form of color popping out of the ground, warmer temperatures, and the 23rd Annual Literacy Volunteers of Casper Appreciation Dinner. On April 22, 2010 at the Parkway Plaza, volunteers and special guests were entertained by Luis Martinez, Dan Hauck and Al Kalbfleisch of “Salsa Grass.” Special guest, Melanie Cantu, national COABE award-winning student, welcomed the attendees and shared her amazing story of having gone from the depths of addiction and back again, to receiving her GED and to attending Casper College with a “3.6”. The coveted Community Recognition Award was presented to Shawn

Powell, Ph.D. for his efforts in promoting adult education and student success. Shawn has made himself available to our program to review special education records that eventually allow students with disabilities a fighting chance at achieving the GED. The most inspirational part of the program was the student speakers describing how LVC has improved their lives and their tutors, who also spoke to the efforts of their amazing students. The student speakers this year were: Elsa Martinez, Jesus Vazquez, Anna Sukyimnoi and Sonya Lopez. The volunteer tutors who spoke were: Jim Evans, John Dyrek, Bill Ward, Dick Fugere Pat Tripeny, and Roxanne

Monterastelli. We thank them all. The evening concluded with the presentation of volunteer service awards. Special thanks go to Armor’s, Blue Heron Books and Espresso, Casper College Bookstore, Cheese Barrel, Donells Candies, Olive Garden, Parkway Plaza, Poor Boys Restaurant, Ralph’s Books and Cards, Jim Sears and Casper College Woodworking, and Target, for donating prizes for the evening. To all our volunteers – your support is what allows Literacy Volunteers of Casper to touch so many lives! We appreciate each and every one of you.

Anna Sukyimoni and Pat Tripeny Bill Ward and Sue Sigler

Dr. Shaun Powell

Elsa Martinez and Jim Evans

ESL class members Marilize DiPaolo,

Anna Sukimoni, and Elianna Orr.

Jesus Vazquez and Dick Fugere

Roxy Monterastelli, Sonya Lopez and daughter

“Salsa Grass” – Dan Hauck, Luiz Martinez, and Al Kalbfleisch

Literacy Volunteers of CasperCasper College

125 College DriveCasper, WY 82601

Summer Time

Kelsee gets her masters degree!!Congratulations to our own Kelsee

Miller who will receive her master’s in adult education from the University of

Wyoming on May 8, 2010!!

The Casper College ABE/GED Center won’t skip a beat as it transitions from spring semester to summer semester. The only change the public will experience is a minor change in operating hours. The Werner Technical Center Program will be open during the following: Mondays, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Wednesdays,

8 a.m. – 8 p.m.; and Thursdays, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. The mandatory new student orientation for individuals pursuing a GED will be held on Tuesdays at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. English as a Second Language classes will cease until fall semester. For additional information about the program, call 268-2230.

Expressions

of Thanks to:

Quest Pioneers Sacajawea Club for donating

to the GED Scholarship Fund; Bill Ward and Don

Whyde for donating books for our Casper Re-Entry

Center Program; Bob and Sue Moore for the many

used books to give to our correctional programs;

and Jackie Warburton and Pat Tripeny for donating

all the magazines used at our correctional

programs.

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