A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Universities
Can Do to Help

Students:

1. Ask your financial aid adviser if your university has officially signed on to the America Reads Challenge. President Clinton has taken a major step in fulfilling the America Reads Challenge and promoting his national service agenda by calling upon colleges to voluntarily invest significant portions of their Federal Work Study dollars toward tutoring children in reading.

2. Volunteer to read with or to a child at a local school. Visit your university's community service center or contact the volunteer coordinator to be matched with a child. If your campus does not have these resources, call the local elementary school and ask whether you can be matched with a child who needs a learning partner. Find out what opportunities are available through your local YMCA/YWCA, Girl Scout, Learn and Serve America, and AmeriCorps programs.

3. Get the local associations and organizations on your campus involved in literacy/mentoring community service projects. Contact organization presidents to discuss ways in which the organization may be able to contribute to existing literacy projects or to initiate a project. Encourage members of groups you belong to, to volunteer as reading tutors.

4. Use student newspapers, radio and television stations, campus electronic bulletin boards, and other on-line information sources to promote student involvement in the America Reads Challenge. Provide notices about school or local literacy projects to the person in charge of advertising; include in the notice a request for volunteers and a contact name and phone number for those who are interested.

5. Work with local precollege youth organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs or the YMCA/YWCA. Talk with the heads of local precollege youth organizations to discover how students at your university can act as learning partners or mentors to their members. Post flyers on campus to inform students about the program and encourage them to
   participate.

Faculty

1. Use your expertise to develop training materials for reading tutors. The President of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education are encouraging colleges of education to help prepare tutors to help children meet the President's America Reads Challenge. As you develop materials, request that colleagues in special education contribute strategies for training tutors of children with special needs.

2. Develop and conduct evaluations of local reading initiatives. Work with these initiatives to develop and conduct evaluations of their programs. Advise them on how they can use the evaluation findings to become more effective.

3. Share current research on reading and mentoring with organizers of local reading initiatives or conduct new research in this field. Many local literacy groups are eager for research that will support and help guide their work. Contact local reading programs and literacy groups to discover areas where research is needed.

4. Offer training on how to become an effective reading partner to interested students, community members, and families. Use your skills as an educator to help others develop effective mentoring skills and habits. Develop a training guide. Post information and sign-up sheets on campus and at your local library and school to inform the community and attract interest.

5. Include tutoring/mentoring skills and service learning opportunities in academic programs involving teacher preparation, social service, and human resources. Incorporate becoming a learning partner into your syllabus. Part-time student volunteer tutoring activities can provide enrichment to education, social services, psychology, and English classes. Match students in these programs with local schoolchildren to give your students one-on-one experience as mentors.

Administrators:

1. Assign and train Work-Study students as reading tutors. Increase the percentage of Work-Study slots that are reserved for reading tutoring. The Secretary of Education has waived the matching requirement for students serving as reading tutors to preschool and elementary schoolchildren. This 100 percent federal funding of Federal Work- Study reading tutors facilitates the participation of postsecondary institutions in the America Reads Challenge. Contact the local school's reading specialist or a local community-based organization such as Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs/YWCAs, Girl Scouts, and AmeriCorps projects to help develop an effective training program for
   Work-Study students.

2. Include reading tutoring/mentoring as an option for students participating in community service projects. Encourage your campus community service center or volunteer coordinator to develop a partnership with the local school so students can serve as learning partners or tutors to schoolchildren.

3. Provide space for local reading programs. Open classrooms or lecture halls to literacy programs on weekends and other times when they are not in use. Encourage students to volunteer as assistants

4. Sponsor an on-campus summer reading program for elementary schoolchildren. Invite professors and qualified students to teach sessions. Contact the community library and local reading programs to encourage their participation.

5. Make campus computer resources available to local families and their children. Open campus computer clusters to the public during off-times. Offer free orientation sessions for people who have never used the Internet before. Provide a list of educational sites related to reading.

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