Children's Dyslexia Center-Madison
News & Happenings
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Welcome to this Spring edition of our newsletter!
We hope you find the content informational, inspiring, and fun.
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The Children's Dyslexia Center-Madison cordially invites you
to our 17th Annual Graduation Ceremony!
Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Time: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Location: Lodge Room #2
Madison Masonic Center, 301 Wisconsin Ave., Madison WI
Summer Session
will begin June 3rd and continue through July 11th.
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We have exciting news here at CDC–Madison: we are beginning an outreach program at our local Goodman Community Center called
Literacy for Life
!
We will train and oversee a program for children and teens who would otherwise not have access to our successful Orton-Gillingham tutoring. This outreach program will positively affect lifelong difference for children whose lives have been complicated by poverty, instability, and all that entails.
Literacy for Life
will expand the number of children served as well as reach a new population by bringing the program into a neighborhood, removing transportation and other barriers for these families. The Goodman Community Center will also integrate the new techniques into their classroom teaching. We are so grateful to the Goodman Community Center for their willingness to partner with CDC – Madison, and to CUNA Mutual Group Foundation and Madison Community Foundation for funding this much needed program.
The past five years we have seen enormous growth in all three of our Wisconsin centers! Each program's seed grows extended roots which inevitably support continued outreach in our state and local communities. We look forward to beginning
Literacy for Life
training this June and to our first group of students at the Goodman Community Center to begin in September.
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Tutor Spotlight
What is a major ingredient in our recipe for success?
Our tutors!
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This month we would like to share some information about our tutor-in-training,
Tracy
Tracy has spent much of her life teaching children to read—particularly helping children who struggled with reading. She worked for many years as a special education teacher and then more recently as a reading intervention teacher. As she worked with these students, Tracy felt she needed additional tools to really help them move forward.
Tracy was already somewhat familiar with the Orton-Gillingham approach, the approach tutors at the Children’s Dyslexia Center-Madison (CDC-M) use when working with children in one-on-one tutoring sessions. Tracy knew this approach had a proven track record of being effective with struggling readers. She had even taken some training before, but did not feel confident enough to use it. So when Tracy came across CDC-M online one day, she was intrigued. She called the Center and spoke with Kelly Kuenzie, Director of CDC-M. After learning more about the tutor training program, Tracy knew it was a good fit for her. “I knew it was a high level of commitment, but I liked that because I felt like it would give me the understanding and knowledge I was looking for,” Tracy said.
Tracy began training this past fall. Training includes eight 6-7 hour classroom instruction sessions. During the classroom sessions, Tracy listened to instruction, practiced with a partner, presented to the group, engaged in conversations and then had the chance to ask questions. “The environment was very supportive and encouraging,” Tracy said. As part of the training, she also took on two students to tutor on her own. Tracy was assigned a mentor to help her as she develops individualized lesson plans for each student. At first, Tracy found developing lesson plans to be challenging, but her mentor helped guide her in the process. “Now I have a better understanding,” Tracy said. “I’m able to see the bigger picture of how the parts all fit together to reinforce the goal for each lesson.”
The most rewarding part for Tracy has been watching her students make progress. One of the students she was tutoring faced significant challenges. With the help of her mentor, Tracy was able to help him gain the foundational skills he needed to move forward. “Those first few times that he really understood it, he and I would look each other—and we both knew. Those were very rewarding moments.”
Overall, Tracy has found the tutor training to be an incredibly positive experience. “I like being part of a program that is so supportive and where success is shared among everyone,” she said. She loves that everyone is focused on the same goal: helping students get the tools they need to succeed.
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Help us reduce our waiting list – and help kids get the tutoring they need to succeed now!
Many of our families currently receiving tutoring services at our Center spent some time on our waiting list. For a family with a struggling child, that time can seem like an eternity. Right now, we have 40 kids—a record number—waiting for a spot to open so they can receive one-on-one tutoring at our Center. A waiting list of 40 kids will most likely mean a wait of two years. For many kids this means two years of continuing to fall behind academically, two years of struggling with feelings of inferiority and two years of frustration. Two years is a long, long time in the life of a child.
We need your help to move these kids off our waiting list and get them spots in our tutoring program. Your gift of any amount helps kids in our community get the reading help they need to succeed.
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Thank you for connecting us with Walk sponsors!
We are so excited for our 10
th
Annual Walk for Dyslexia! (See below for more information.) Our Walk is our largest fundraiser of the year. A significant amount of funds raised come from sponsors. The best way for us to connect with sponsors is through you! Businesses are much more likely to engage with a nonprofit if an employee has a connection to the nonprofit. We are grateful for families, committee members, and other supporters of our Center who have connected us with businesses this year. Sometimes just sending a note letting us know where you work and that you are willing to have us use your name is enough to make a big difference.
We’re wrapping up sponsors for this year. However, we’d still love to connect with your business – any time! Send an email to Leslie Huber (
lahuber@hotmail.com
) if you’re willing to help us open a door or to let us use your name in our application process. A small effort on your part could yield large positive results and help more kids with dyslexia get the resources they need to be successful in reading.
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If you would like a report of donations you have made
to the Children's Dyslexia Center-Madison,
contact Gail Piper at 608-242-9282 or gailpiper6@aol.com.
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From Kelly Kuenzie, Director
After a long winter, I hope we’ve all thawed to colorful and active spring!
April at CDC-Madison is when we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We check in with the growth of our students and celebrate those who have reached their goals of reading at grade level or greater in decoding, reading words in isolation, and comprehension. We know that all children can learn how to read effectively when taught from auditory to kinesthetic and systematically: in order of most common patterns to least, and then connected visually. Auditory and kinesthetic learning are purposefully used to maximize awareness. It is a common belief that reading and writing is ‘natural’ and a part of being human. However, humans have only been reading and writing for about 5,000 years of our 200,000 year existence. The general public did not begin reading until the 1700s and books were not affordable until the 19
th
century. The printing press has only been around for 550 years. Speech is hard wired into our human brains, but reading and writing are not. With the demands of rapid development we know the negative impact illiteracy and inefficient reading and writing can have on a person’s physical, financial, and emotional well-being.
We will gather to celebrate the impact the Masons have had, and continue to have, on the lives of 13,000 children in our collective 42 centers across the nation and the 270 plus students at our center since 2001 and the incredible work of the tutors, and our bright burgeoning youngsters. We hope you will join us in celebrating on Tuesday, May 7
th
at 7:00pm.
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10th Annual Walk for Dyslexia
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REGISTRATION IS OPEN for our 10th Annual
Walk for Dyslexia-Madison
which
will take place
Saturday,
May 18, 2019,
at the Brittingham Park Shelter in Madison. Day-of registration/Check-in begins at 7:30am; walk at 8:30am.
Please note we are returning to Brittingham Park in Madison this year.
We want to thank our 2019 walk sponsors for helping to make our event a success.
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And, the winner is ........
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Walk T-Shirt Artwork Contest Results
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Many thanks to the CDCM students who submitted artwork for consideration this year. We had six wonderful entries to choose from. Choosing the artwork for our T-Shirts is the hardest thing the walk committee has to do!
Ivy S. won the contest this year with her moon and sun graphic depicting light and dark. "We are getting brighter every day!" says her artistic message seen to the right.
Thanks again to all who entered, and congratulations to Ivy.
To see all artwork submitted please click
here
to go to the Walk for Dyslexia-Madison website.
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Grins, Giggles, and perhaps Groans
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Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Because if they flew over the bay they'd be called bagels!
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Famous People With Dyslexia
Scientists, artists, architects, astronauts, musicians, engineers, inventors, business leaders, government officials, -- the list goes on and on. Who is YOUR favorite?
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Did you know actress Keira Knightley originally got into acting because of her learning disability?
Diagnosed with dyslexia at age six, Knightley struggled with reading in school. Her parents took quick notice, but the only way they could get the aspiring actress to improve was to use an incentive.
According to Knightley, she struck a deal with her parents where if she was able to learn to read, they would hire an agent for her. So, over the summer holiday, she took the challenge and used the screenplay of Emma Thompson’s adaptation of
Sense and Sensibility
as her reading tool.
Knightley’s mother, who worked with Thompson on the screenplay, encouraged her daughter to learn to read, because “that’s what Emma Thompson would do.”
Eventually Knightley learned to read, and her parents fulfilled their promise to hire an agent for her, which launched her acting career. She has since gone on to star in films such as
Pride and Prejudice
and the
Pirates of the Caribbean
films. She maintains that her dyslexia hasn’t affected her ability to learn her lines.
Read more about Knightley’s success in her interview with
The Telegraph.
Source: University of Michigan, Dyslexia Help
Image source: Wikipedia
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Don't forget to bring in your
BoxTop$ 4 Education coupons to put in the collection box located in our waiting area.
(Please be sure they are not expired.) Our Center has raised $1,770 in the last four years with just those little pieces of paper!
We want to thank
Carol Skavlen, our volunteer who is in charge of this fundraising effort. Carol organizes the coupons, checks the expiration dates, fills out the paperwork and submits everything to General Mills for our donations.
Visit
www.boxtops$4education for more information about this General Mills charitable program that raises money for non-profit organizations.
And, there are coupons on the Boxtop$ 4 Education website for you to use at the store. Check them out!
Coupon Page
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Our Board of Governors
Roger Nitzsche, Chair
William E. Johnson, Vice-Chair
Steve Underwood, Secretary
Paul Krueger, Treasurer
Gail Piper, Assistant to the Treasurer
Andy Anderson
Don Komplin
Michael Roering
Peggy Rosin
Jon Udell
Deputy for Supreme Council, 33° A.A.S.R. for No. M.J.
Michael A. DeWolf
Diane Anderson, Controller
Kelly Kuenzie, Director
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We want to recognize and thank
the following sustaining funders of our Center:
Irwin A & Robert D Goodman Foundation
Madison Community Foundation
NFL Alumni Association-Madison Chapter
Steve Stricker American Family Insurance Foundation
Don Soberg 33°
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Children's Dyslexia Center-Madison
608.252.4922 office | 608.252.4933 fax
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