CVABE and Vermont Reads 2012
CVABE is a proud participant of Vermont Humanities Council’s Statewide, One-Book Community Reading Program. This year’s book selections are:
Bull Run by Paul Fleischman with The Red Badge of Courage as a Second Choice.
Each year, communities around the state have the opportunity to bring people together to read, discuss, and build activities around that year’s selected book. In 2011 communities read the classic beloved To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In 2010 more than one hundred communities read The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson. Vermont Reads was launched in 2003 with Witness by Karen Hesse. |
 Vermont Reads 2012 will feature Paul Fleishman's Bull Run, a beautifully written novella that takes place during the Civil War. It is written in the first person from the point of view of sixteen different characters, eight northerners and eight southerners — male, female, black, white, old, young, soldier, and civilian. The award-winning book focuses on the social context of the war, the run-up to the first battle of the war, and its aftermath as well as on the battle itself.
 Vermont Humanities Council is also encouraging communities to read The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane’s classic and groundbreaking story of heroism and weakness in the face of war’s indifference to the fate of individuals. |
Sadeta Zahirovic-Laub, Volunteer Winnie McCormick and Mei Lihn. |
CVABE Goes to the Theater
On May 9th and 10th several volunteers, teachers and students from three CVABE learning centers (Barre, Montpelier, and Morrisville) attended Lost Nation Theater’s World Premier of Lyddie. The play is based on Katherine Paterson’s novel about a young nineteenth century Vermont girl who is forced to work in the Lowell, Massachusetts textile mills and struggles to return to her family’s farm.
Theater tickets and copies of the book were made available to CVABE students by Vermont Humanities Council. Reading and discussion groups around Lyddie will continue for weeks to come.
Thank you Vermont Humanities Council for making this extraordinary cultural and educational event possible for CVABE.
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Vermont Reads 2012 Workshop
February 10, 2012
Vermont Humanities Council provided CVABE staff and volunteers with a full day workshop on February 10. Peter Gilbert, Vermont Humanities Council Director, made introductory remarks inviting CVABE's participation in the Vermont Reads 2012 project and noted Vermont's observance of the Civil War Sesquicentennial.
John Turner, Vermont Humanities scholar, provided historical context for the American Civil War as background for this year's Vermont Reads selections, Bull Run by Paul Fleischman and The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. The entire staff and several volunteers then enjoyed hearing from Vermont Humanities Council experts Morgan Irons and Jan Steinbauer regarding active learning strategies to engage CVABE students in the two books. |
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Montpelier Learning Center
Holiday Party
December 2011
Montpelier volunteer and Shop Talk leader, Jeanne Cariati, organized a lovely holiday party with the help of students and staff on December 16. Good food and holiday cheer were in abundance. Volunteers, students and staff thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Shop Talk is an on-going support group organized by Montpelier volunteers for Montpelier volunteers to regularly share their variety of experiences at CVABE. Volunteers teachers also discuss the methods they are using in their tutoring sessions. The idea for the holiday party was born out of a Shop Talk meeting.
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Author Carolyn Coman (center) with teacher
Lissa Fox (left) and students at Central Vermont Adult Basic
Education’s Depot School in Barre.
The group participated in a recent discussion and writing
workshop using Coman’s book, What Jamie Saw. The book, which tells the
story of a young boy who witnesses domestic violence in his home, has
been used for similar workshops throughout the state sponsored by the
Vermont Humanities Council.
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