PROGRAM
LVM-Quincy is a
library literacy program that provides free, one-on-one tutoring in basic reading
and writing to adults on the South Shore. Founded by Ann McLaughlin in 1986, LVM-Quincy is one of 12 LVM programs statewide and a full affiliate
of the national network of Literacy Volunteers. We serve adults whose reading levels range from non-reader to sixth grade level.
The program strengths include training, staff development programs, student support services, and
community involvement.
- Trained volunteers provide free, one-on-one, private tutoring to adults
from 15 South Shore communities. Tutors attend a two-hour orientation, a six-session
18-hour training, and a two-hour follow-up meeting. Tutors are also required to attend one staff development program per year.
- Staff has
access to e-mail and Internet, with computer access at all branches.
- The program has a total of one full-time and one part-time staff member, 60-65 tutors, and two administrative volunteers. Tutors and students meet once a week for two hours at a mutually convenient time and place. Service delivery at multiple sites and flexible times eases student access to services.
- LVM-Quincy serves approximately 70-80 adults per year. More than 100 others receive referrals, information about area adult education programs, and use of resource materials. Eighty percent of students are native speakers who never learned to read and write proficiently. Others are adults whose primary language is not English, who speak and understand English well, but who never learned to read and write it.
- Intake includes
a student interview and a skills assessment.
- Tutors are trained in direct teaching methods that are hands-on and multisensory.
- The curriculum of this learner-centered program is based upon the needs of the individual. Adults may work on job applications, pre-GED material, a CDL, reading to their children, or simply improving basic skills for the job.
- Student effort and accomplishment is acknowledged and celebrated at the annual recognition and awards ceremony for tutors and students. A journal of student writing, Voices of Literacy, is published annually and a newsletter for students and tutors is published twice a year. The Library's extensive adult new reader book collection is a browsing collection and simply cataloged to ease access for those who are not strong readers.
- A three-session computer training program for students is in place. Students learn how to use the mouse, how to do an Internet search, sign up for an e-mail address and learn how to use it.
- A program is in place to train volunteer tutors to use the Wilson Reading System, a structured, sequential, multisensory phonic-based program to teach reading.