"Our mission is to teach English literacy skills to adults and to raise literacy awareness throughout the Roanoke Valley."
 

LVRV CELEBRATES NEW DIGS

to Anna Karbassiyoon, Bre Sawyer and team members Todd Burns, Carolyn Riddleberger, Sally Rugaber, Gray Turner and Sheila Umberger for making this Open House a wonderful success!

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        A YEAR OF TRANSITION 

In July we moved to the downtown library (see article on page 2 regarding our September 5^th Open House), said goodbye and good luck to Susie Boxley, and welcomed Pam Adams to our program staff. Bill Van Velzer became our new program manager, and he and Pam have teamed up to provide excellent program support to both learners and tutors during a time of lively transition. 

Last year at this time, this column focused on Standards-Based Instruction and described the work of the Virginia Content Standards Steering Committee, a group of dedicated adult education professionals who guided the process of writing, piloting, and revising both the Virginia General Educational Development Content Standards and the Virginia ESOL Content Standards. 

The six levels of English proficiency (the levels our learners are placed in when they begin our program) guide the content standards for Virginia’s Adult English Language Learner population.  Within each of these levels, standards have been developed for the components of Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.  These standards represent what our learners should know and be able to do upon completion of each level.  The standards provide a checklist for instructors to make sure that their learners have the knowledge and skills to leave that level.  

With this uniform framework and an eye toward continuous program improvement, LVRV is transitioning to align instruction, assessment, accountability, and professional development to the content standards.  

This year, all of our learners are being pre-tested using the CASAS assessment which takes approximately two hours for the learner to complete. In addition to determining the learner’s educational functioning level, this test has provided us with valuable information about each learner’s strengths and weaknesses.  Pam and Bill have been sharing this information with tutors while providing guidance in lesson planning that meets individual needs.  

In addition, Bill is training fifteen individuals in our current tutor training class in a totally revised curriculum that places special emphasis on learning styles and student- centered lesson planning. Tutor training will continue to change as this year moves forward. Additional segments on reading, word study and writing will be forthcoming. 

So, thank you for bearing with us! All of these changes consume an incredible amount of time and effort, but we believe they are critical to quality program improvement. By June 30^th we will look back and celebrate the dedicated work of our tutors and the achievements of the many learners we will have touched this year.

WHAT'S IN THE NEWS

..is an initiative of Governor Mark Warner and is a vital part of his Education for a Lifetime program. The goal of Race to GED is to double the number of Virginians passing the General Educational Development (GED) Test. Click image above for more information.

OOUR WEBSITE IS COMING BACK!

Thank you, one and all, for your patience during the past few weeks while our Web page endured a much-needed change in hosting services. Like so many other aspects of our recent move, maintaining and updating the LVRV site has been more problematic than expected. Completion of the updates will take time, but we're finally on our way. Keep checking back, as you're bound to find something new. You might want to take a look at the Program Notes and Tutor/Volunteer sections below for starters.