Do you celebrate Women's History?

Why not celebrate Women's History Month? Please share some of your students' work with us, or simply comment on how you celebrate the work of women through the years!

From readworks.org, "Celebrate Women's History Month with your students this March! Share  videos and articles that can help your students build background knowledge on important women throughout history. The collection includes articles and videos generously shared by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and HISTORY®." As with all ReadWorks resources, readings and videos are categorized by level. Yes, it's K-12, but the readings don't know that, and your learners don't need to, either! :)

Go to bit.ly/1TEF5QZ.
Leecy Wise, Moderator, Reading and Writing, and Diversity and Literacy CoPs
leecy@reconnectioncompany.com

Comments

The Right to Read and to Work in Nontraditional Jobs for Women: Submitted by Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education
 
During Women’s History Month we recognize the important contributions of exceptional women to our Nation’s wellbeing. Two exceptional women with whom I have had the honor of working in adult education are Shirley Jackson and Cindy Marano.  Both of these women have earned an honored place in the history of adult education as they pursued activities to upgrade the literacy of the Land and enrich the lives and livelihoods of women and their families in the United States.
 
Shirley Jackson and the Right to Read (R2R) Program
 
I worked with Dr. Shirley Jackson when she was directing the U.S. government’s R2R program within the Office of Education in the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) (Sticht, 1978). One activity of the R2R was the identification of reading education programs demonstrated to be particularly effective. I had directed the development of the Functional Literacy (FLIT) program for the U.S. Army and it was identified as one of only two programs focused on adult literacy education to be considered as “exemplary” by the R2R (U. S. Office of Education, n.d.).
     Writing in 1980, Jackson stated: Quote” This is a report on the fifth year of the National Right to Read Program. Beginning with a modest appropriation of $12,000,000 in FY 1975, Right to Read has grown to $27,000,000 in FY 1979. Thousands of people have been helped by this program, but in addition, the Right to Read program has been able not only to focus national attention on the reading problems of our young people and on illiteracy, but also to identify resources throughout the country which can be made available to bring about needed reforms” (Jackson,  1980a, p. iii). End quote
     One of the major activities overseen by Jackson in the R2R was the development of Reading Academies serving functionally illiterate youth and adults. In school year 1978-79, Reading Academies received over $4.0 million and served close to 30 thousand youth and adults. In school year 1979-80 some 70 Reading Academies received over $5.2 million dollars to improve youth and adult literacy. Additionally, the federal Adult Education program adopted the Reading Academy approach in reaching some of the least literate adults in its programs (Elbers, 1980).
     Following her work on the R2R  Jackson went on to direct the National Basic Skills Improvement Program (Jackson, 1980b) and she served in various leadership positions within the Department of Education, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education, Associate Director of the National Institute of Education, Associate Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics,  and Director of Analysis and Data Collection in the Office of Civil Rights in the Office of Education  Research and Improvement. As a member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Jackson contributed to the NCNW mission:  “…to lead, develop, and advocate for women of African descent as they support their families and communities.”
 
Cindy Marano and Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW)
 
Jackson’s concerns for women’s issues were shared by Cynthia “Cindy” Marano, President of Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW). On  January 14, 1992,  the late Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of  Teachers (AFT), published in his New York Times column a piece about research by WOW (Van Fossen & Sticht, 1991) on the transfer of literacy from mothers to their children. Shanker commented that the research  indicated that: Quote: "If giving mothers some extra schooling means that their attitudes towards their children's schooling becomes more positive and the child is more likely to learn, we are helping two for the price of one. This is a good use of money in hard times. (And if the extra schooling helps the mother get a job, it's triply good.)" End quote.
     The WOW research reported by Shanker involved programs within the National Workforce Network, headed by Marano, which reached over a million women providing employment information, counseling, and  job training.  Additional research by WOW focused on strategies for achieving economic self-sufficiency. One strategy called for integrating literacy and job skills training to design programs that can help women break out of poverty and reach educational and economic self-sufficiency in a timely manner (Marano, 1992; Sticht & Lancaster, 1992).
     Marano left WOW in 1997 and started her own advocacy company in Oakland, California, where she also worked with the Reconciling Program for the LGBT community as an activist for same-sex marriage. In 2001, she joined the National Economic Development and Law Center where she served as director of its National Network of Sector Partners project aimed at improving economic development and employment opportunities for low-income people, families and communities. Cindy Marano died in April of 2005 and the Sector Skills Academy, of the Aspen Institute, named their Academy classes "Marano Fellows" as a tribute to her.
     In 2006, she was recognized as a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project:  “Economic Justice Activist and Public Policy Visionary Cindy Marano worked for 35 years to build a vision of economic equity for women and low-income workers. A brilliant strategic thinker, Marano focused on public policy issues, built legislative and government support, and engaged a network of national, state, and local organizations to help women and low-income workers fulfill their dreams. Many of her policies were adopted into federal law.”
 
Lamplighters of an Earlier Age

The work of both Shirley Jackson and Cindy Marano to overcome challenges and to bring literacy and improved livelihood to adults, especially women, builds on the efforts of many other women who have taken up these challenges.  In another paper I have identified three lady Lamplighters of Literacy from an earlier era in the history of the United States: Cora Wilson Stewart, Wil Lou Gray, and Septima Poinsette Clark (Sticht, 2004).
     Today there are tens of thousands of women who work in anonymity every day, often under deplorable conditions and circumstances, to help adults gain their right to read, and to bring occupational equity for women seeking a sustainable, self-sufficient income for themselves and their families. During Women’s History Month, we celebrate the lives of these women, too.  
 
References
 
•    Elbers, G. (1980). The Right to Read, Fiscal Year 1979, October 1, 1978-September 30, 1979. Annual Report. Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. ERIC Document Number ED  191  005.
•    Jackson, S. (1980a). Foreword. In: Elbers, G.: The Right to Read, Fiscal Year 1979, October 1, 1978-September 30, 1979. Annual Report. Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. ERIC Document Number ED  191  005.
•    Jackson, S. (1980b). Title II: The National Basic Skills Improvement Program: What's It All About? Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Education. ERIC Document Number ED 199 260.
•    Marano, C.  (1992). A Road Map to Funding: Finding Resources for Teaching Literacy in Context. Washington, DC: WOW-Wider Opportunities for Women.
•    Sticht. T. (1978). The Basic Skills Movement: Its Impact on Literacy: Meeting the Challenge. Paper presented at the National Right to Read Conference, Washington, DC, May 27-29, 1978. Washington DC: Office of Education (DHEW). ERIC Document Number ED 211 942.
•    Sticht, T. & Lancaster, A.(1992. Functional Context Education: A Primer for Program Providers. Washington, DC: WOW-Wider Opportunities for Women.
•    Sticht, T. (2004, September). Literacy Frees the World: A Vision of the Future Through a Prism of the Past. Online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281626947  (Retrieved 2/19/2016).
•    U. S.  Office of Education. (N.D., circa 1975). Functional Literacy Program: Fort Ord, California. U. S. Department of Health, Education, & Welfare.
•    Van Fossen, S. & Sticht, T. (1991). Teach the Mother and Reach the Child: Results of the Intergenerational Literacy Action Research Project: WOW-Washington, DC: Wider Opportunities for Women

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Interestingly, as I shared with Tom, I directed one of the first Right to Read programs in Western Colorado, way back in the 70’s. I also wrote a WOW grant that was funded when I taught at El Paso Community College, back in the 90’s! That grant did a whole lot to get many more women enrolled in our technology programs, leading into much higher-paying careers for women!

Who would you like to add to the list? Please join us here and share more models to emulate!  Leecy

Leecy Wise, Moderator, Diversity and Literacy CoP
leecy@reconnectioncompany.com

Newsela.com is offering wonderful ideas to support more awareness during Women's History Month, at  bit.ly/1TM5pc9

In "Women Making History: Classroom Activities,"  Mia Thompson develops links and instructions to cover the following topics and much more!

  1. Students will assess gender stereotypes as they apply to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
  2. Students will write letters to a woman who inspires them.
  3. Have students look at a historical image of women working during World War II.
  4. Students will discover unique challenges faced by women who are pushing cultural and gender boundaries.

Please contribute your ideas around this topic. Is it worth discussing? If so, what other similar topics could we be talking about? If not, why? Thanks, Leecy

The recent rise of websites that provide freely available leveled readings and lessons is a huge boon for our field.  Newsela is a godsend for current events.  Read Works is another such site.  Their target audience is K-12 reading, but many of their materials on social studies and science topics are appropriate for use with adults as well. 

Here's the link to their collection of Women's History Month resources for 2016:  http://www.readworks.org/womens-history-month  They often feature videos from the History channel too! 

If you sign up for a free account you'll get E-mail notification when these timely resources are available.  For example, last month they E-mail me about their Black History Month 2016 resources.