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

“An Evening with Dr. James Robertson”

to Kick Off International Literacy Month 

Start thinking about International Literacy Month NOW and mark your calendar for a special treat.  On Wednesday evening, September 6^th, in collaboration with WVTF and The Roanoke Times, Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley will present

“An Evening with Dr. James Robertson” in Shaftman Performance Hall at Jefferson Center in celebration of International Literacy Month.  Dr. Robertson will share his insight on “What Civil War History Teaches Us.” Tickets will be available at $35 and $30 through the Jefferson Center Box Office in mid-July. All proceeds will benefit LVRV to support our mission of teaching English literacy skills to adults and raising literacy awareness throughout the Roanoke Valley. 

Dr. James I. “Bud” Robertson, Jr., Virginia Tech Alumni Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, is the unchallenged authority on Virginia’s Confederate soldiers and Stonewall Jackson’s “foot cavalry” in particular. Each semester approximately 250 attend his Civil War era class, the largest of its kind in the country.

Dr. Robertson has published more than ten books and forty articles on the Civil War. In addition to his award-winning book, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, Dr. Robertson has won acclaim for The Stonewall Brigade, General A. P. Hill, Soldiers Blue and Gray and Civil War! America Becomes One Nation, among others. His most recent texts are Stonewall Jackson’s Book of Maxims and Robert E. Lee.   

Dr. Robertson served as historical consultant for Warner Brothers’ four-hour saga Gods and Generals in 2003; he hosted the popular Blue Ridge Public Television Civil War Series, and he can be heard each week sharing civil war social history on WVTF.

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this exciting evening! For ticket information, click here to to go the Jefferson Center.

TIPS FOR LD READERS

...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.

While reading a passage, allow the learner to use a finger to track the sentence. A plain book mark, a piece of paper, or a translucent, color-tinted plastic overlay may also help with eye distractions and muscular coordination.

Watch your learner’s eyes as they move across the page. Is the movement choppy and shifty or is it smooth and orderly? If choppy and shifty, suggest eye sweeping exercises. Three “sweeps” of movement – left, middle, and right – “chunking” the words into a “wide angle" approach to brain input. By underlining the group of words to read as a “chunk”, the learner can practice the eye movement and the intake of several words at a time. Allow the learner to use his or her book mark or lay the pencil flat, to again track the movement in three sweeps while reading. Practice, practice, practice the eye movements before worrying about the actual comprehension of content. This strategy will increase the speed of reading, and mature the ability to comprehend the text at a faster rate.