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[WASHINGTON]
Samples of America Reads Challenge Federal Work-Study Programs and National Service Initiatives
CLINCH VALLEY COLLEGE
President L. Jay Lemons
America Reads Contact: Russell D. Necessary
1 College Avenue
Wise, VA 24293
Email: r_necessary@clinch.edu
Internet Address: www.clinch.edu
Telephone: 540-328-0103
Fax: 540-328-0251
Number of FWS Students: 9
Number of Districts: 2
Our tutoring takes place in 4 primary schools. America reads tutors work with kindergarten and first grade students to improve their reading skills and comprehension levels.
The program has been an overwhelming success and has received glowing reviews from both the school system involved and the America Reads tutors.
NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY
President Marie V. McDemmond
America Reads Contact: Dr. Carmelita K. Williams
Norfolk State University, 2401 Corprew Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23504
E-mail: c_williams@vger.nsu.edu
Telephone: (757) 683-8504
Number of FWS students: 10-12
The Center for America Reads was developed to implement President Clinton's Initiative of all children reading by the end of grade three. A task force began meeting in March 1997 to look at ways in which we could carry out the program. The constituents of the program include teachers, administrators, University students, children, parents, and community leaders. This group decided that Norfolk State University should establish a center and name it the Center for America Reads. They also agreed that the tutors receive training as actual college course work to prepare them for their work in the public schools. They felt this was necessary so as to not be an added burden for teachers working in the programs. They would receive tutors already trained and prepared for working with individual children. Therefore, the NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY model includes several components for an all encompassing program for training tutors, teachers, and parents, for working with children and for participating in community service activities.
University students eligible for Federal Work-Study receive training for tutoring children in grades K-6. The students enroll in courses especially designed to teach them how to tutor students in reading and writing. We assign these students to help tutoring programs in public schools after completing six hours of course work. The America Reads tutors participate in one-on-one tutoring of children, provide parent workshops, create and maintain records for clinic children, participate in Reading Is Fundamental distributions and complete course work as part of their training.
During the summer months, tutors can participate 40 hours each week. Summer activities for 1997 included training high school students to tutor children for an AmeriCorps project in Virginia Beach, providing story hours for children enrolled in the Norfolk State University Child Development Laboratory and distributing free books as part of the Reading Is Fundamental program to public schools in the area. During the regular academic sessions, students can participate twenty hours per week. These students also read stories in the Child Development Laboratory and participate in RIF distributions.
The course work is in addition to tutoring hours and is not counted in the students' FWS hours. As part of their course work, students prepare portfolios which include tutoring materials and resources that enable them to take a child and begin the tutoring process immediately.
OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
President James Koch
America Reads Contact: Dr. Abha Gupta and Dianne Bryan
ECI, Darden College of Education
244 Education Building
Norfolk, Virginia
Email: agupta@odu.edu / dbryan@odu.edu
Telephone: (757) 683-6074 / 683-6042
Fax: (757) 683-5862
Number of FWS Students: 68
Number of Districts: 1
The America Reads program at Old Dominion University has a partnership with Norfolk Public Schools. The tutors, who are all O.D.U. students who have been awarded Federal Work Study Awards, work in two Public Development schools located near the university. Tutors set their own schedules of work. Most tutors work between 12 and 20 hours a week. They work with children in grades kindergarten thru third who have demonstrated, through criterian referenced tests, that they most need the extra help provided by the tutors. The test scores of the students who were tutored in the 1997-1998 school year show that their communication skills improved at a considerably greater
rate than did the scores of a control group of students who who were not tutored.
A university professor serves as the director of the program, while a graduate assistant is hired as the coordinator. Also, at each elelmentary school an instructional specialist is appointed to assist the tutors. Although the America Reads program currently only serves two local elementary schools, many other school in the area are interested in receiving the services of our tutors. The program has, thus far, shown to be a great success.
The program was advertised initially through posters and flyers. However, due to its success, it is now mainly through word of mouth. The tutors had to sign a contract. They underwent an orientation on job description, expectations, transportation, timeslips, work-schedule, information on schools sites, dress codes and professionalism. Orientations were followed by a Saturday morning training session on "Tutoring in Reading". The training consisted of providing theoretical background on reading, current reading research, reading strategies to implement, tools for diagnosis and assessment and exposure to children's literature. Each tutor was given a three-ring binder as a "tutoring manual" including a journal notebook for recording their tutoring experiences. This was followed by a simulated demonstration of a tutoring session.
Tutors provide their own transportation. They turn in biweekly reports (narratives of their sessions) along with timeslips. Mid-term reflection sessions were held, where all the tutors got together to share their experiences. Pre and Post assessment will be done with most of America Reads tutees.
One of the site coordinator mentioned, "These tutors are so dedicated and committed. They are great assets to our program. Kids are showing more interest and confidence. They are building success as readers." Teachers appreciate the extra help.
Tutors provide a range of activities such as reading aloud, helping students select an appropriate book, working on a project / activity, working with a child on the computer.
An America Reads Coordinator is needed for program management and support to tutors.
RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE
President Martin
America Reads Contact: Kay Mattox
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, Virginia
Email: kmattox@rmc.edu
Internet Address: www.rmc.edu
Telephone: 804 752-7259
Fax: 804 752-3719
Number of Districts: 2
The program is coordinated by Kay Mattox from RMC financial aid and the Reading Specialist at two local elementary schools. The reading specialist is in charge of training and creating lesson plans for the tutors. Kay Mattox goes to the schools to ensure they are happy with the tutors and that the tutors are doing there jobs, as well as recruiting and hiring tutors. We jointly make the training materials and do assesments. Currently we don't do background checks. We are in the very beginning of starting this program we do plan to expand and get more involvement from other campus groups.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
President John Casteen
America Reads Contact: Marcia Invernizzi
125 Ruffner Hall 405 Emmet St.
Charlottesville, Virginia
Email: mai@virginia.edu
Internet Address:
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/curry/dept/cise/read/mcguffey.html
Telephone: 804-243-8685
Fax: 804-243-8681
Number of FWS Students: 15
Number of Districts: 1
Fifteen UVA work study students tutor approximately 45 first and second grade children in four elementary schools in Charlottesville City schools. First graders are tutored during the day as part of the already established Book Buddies Volunteer Tutorial. Second graders are tutored during the day at one school and in an after-school program at another school. The 15 work study students are all graduate students at the Curry School of Education. Most are graduate students in Reading Education and in Special Education. They tutor two to three children a week for 45 minute sessions. Non-reading work study graduate students receive two, two-hour formal training sessions in September and January. In addition, they receive on-going training and support from a supervising coordinator who is a trained reading specialist with an M.ed. in Reading Ed. The coordinator writes individualized lesson plans for each child, gathers all materials, and supervises the tutorials, modeling instructional techniques and providing feedback for each session. Reading graduate student work study tutors completed a 6-hour practicum in Diagnosis and Remediation so they write their own lesson plans. The supervisory coordinator is still on hand to model effective strategies and to provide feedback as necessary. Each coordinator supervises a total of 15 tutors and their children. Work study students work along side of community volunteers who are also supported in the same fashion. All tutors are provided a tutoring manual (BookBuddies: Guidelines for Volunteer Tutors of Emergent and Early Readers by Johnston, Invernizzi & Juel (1998) published by Guilford Press. Formative and summative assessments are conducted three times a year (September, January and June) to help guide instruction and to measure progress. A reading level matched control group will be compared for the second grade program. See Invernizzi, Rosemary, Juel & Richards (1997). At-Risk Readers and Community Volunteers, a 3-Year Perspective in the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading journal for more details regarding the infrastructure for this FWS initiative.
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This page last updated March 29, 2000 (lw/pjk)