Monica’s Story

I was born and raised in southern California. My sister, cousins, and I were the first US-born generation in my family, and the first to complete elementary through high school here. I received a diploma but I really could not spell and read as well as I wanted to. I was identified as an ESL student early on. Some of my teachers helped me along the way, but some looked the other way, and none of them had the resources to teach me the skills I needed. To compensate, I became very good at memorizing the way words look in order to read, and I avoided reading and writing to hide my difficulties.

Now in my 30’s, married and living in Portland with my supportive family, I have finally found the teaching I always needed through the Orton-Gillingham approach. In 2017, I decided the first step to improve my English was to learn why words are spelled the way the are. I was lucky to find the Language and Literacy Fund classes at Portland Community College. It brought me great happiness to find teachers who volunteer to teach English, from the sounds of each letter to the most complex spelling rules. Along with learning English from the beginning, I have gained the confidence to pursue other interests that involve reading and writing, which is really everything!

Bryan’s Story

The Orton Gillingham system improves us because it’s as though the school system abandoned us. We could not function in school, so they never taught us even basic sounds. The school probably thought our parents would teach us the sounds of the letters.

I was nineteen when I first took the class. I hadn’t worked because I was afraid my reading, writing and especially spelling abilities were not good enough. I had never read a book in my lifetime. It was super embarrassing to work at the board. I was super shy and my handwriting was like a little kid’s.

I took the class for two years. During that time, I registered to vote and now I work at OHSU. I have continued to tutor. It helps me a lot.

Robin’s Story

I came to Portland Community College with the goal to relearn the literacy skills I lost after a heart attack left me in a coma and on life support for five days. Before this I had a career in healthcare, working as a nurse for ten years in Portland. After many months of physical therapy and rehabilitation I was able to begin putting my life back together.

My first classes at PCC were in reading and writing. In one of these Adult Basic Education classes one of my classmates told me about a beginning literacy class offered by a nonprofit called the Language and Literacy Fund at PCC. The following term I started taking LLF’s classes and now, a year later, I have improved my reading, spelling and writing skills so that I can now take PCC’s Reading and Writing 90 class.

The LLF class teaches reading and spelling differently than most. They start at the beginning, which for me was exactly how I needed to learn. The teachers of LLF make sure each lesson is understood before moving on to new material. They are patient and know that all questions are good questions – the only bad question is one that isn’t asked.

The LLF classes were very important to me. Because of them I am getting closer to my goal: to open a drop-in day center for seniors in Portland. I am determined and very motivated and working with the LLF teachers has given me more confidence and the ability to know that my goal can be reached. Thank you to the teachers at the Language and Literacy Fund!