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In this Issue:
Partnerships: Building Partnerships with Teachers and Parents
LEARNS Partners Team Up for Expanding Literacy
by Erin Randolph
In this issue of The Tutor we are excited to introduce the Corporation for National and Community Service's new training and technical assistance provider: LEARNS. Three organizations have united to form the LEARNS partnership: The Northwest Regional Education Lab (NWREL), Bank Street College of Education, and the Southern Regional Council (SRC). Together they form a team that offers comprehensive training and technical assistance to national service projects in education and literacy.
How LEARNS helps:
- By gathering and sharing information from present education and literacy sites.
- By providing ongoing technical assistance with toll-free numbers for easy access to each partner organization. Projects can call their state's LEARNS partner (see map and numbers on back page) for help in project design and implementation.
- By designing and distributing publications of The Tutor and occasional monographs on literacy topics.
- By delivering three-day intensive literacy workshops conducted by Bank Street College of Education in 8 cities across the nation. The workshops are designed to respond to the needs of volunteer tutors, project directors and coordinators, parents and family literacy programs. (If you think this kind of training would benefit your project and would like to be involved in planning, please let Bank Street know.)
- By providing limited on-site workshop trainings at cluster and state meetings conducted by peer trainers who are masters in their National Service projects.
About the Partners in The LEARNS Partnership
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), known for its breadth and depth of education service, will guide the newly created LEARNS partnership. NWREL understands national service in its many forms and believes that communities must mobilize their education and non-education resources if all students are to be prepared for lifelong learning, particularly the ability to learn to read.
For 30 years, NWREL, one of nine regional education "labs" funded by Congress, has helped education agencies and communities in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska improve learning results for children, youth and, adults. NWREL, through its AmeriCorps Northwest Network Northwest, has brought customized training and technical assistance to project staff of education-focused AmeriCorps and other National Service programs in five states.
In recent years, NWREL has created a peer assistance network of middle school educators to share expertise with others around the nation who use community resources to enhance student achievement. It has also provided T/TA to staff in Community Education and Employment Centers serving high school students in New York City, suburban Atlanta, rural Montana, and beyond. Based on the Laboratory's identification of "traits" of effective reading ability, NWREL has developed a training workshop, Creating Readers through Assessment and Instruction. In this past year alone, NWREL conducted 1,070 training workshops and technical assistance sessions.
Nancy Henry, director of the new LEARNS partnership says, "All of us at NWREL are extremely pleased to be partnering with SRC and Bank Street College of Education in this important effort. SRC brings all the history and lessons learned from their three years of experience providing support to national service in education and Bank Street has been, for decades, a trailblazer in the areas of early childhood and literacy education. Most importantly, we are all also great colleagues and enjoy working together!"
Bank Street College of Education is an independent, fully-accredited graduate institution in New York City. It is a recognized leader in early childhood education, a pioneer in improving the quality of classroom conditions, and a national advocate for children and families. Bank Street's mission is to "discover the environments in which children grow and learn to their full potential, to establish such environments, and to prepare adults to maintain them."
Founded in 1916, Bank Street's accomplishments over the years include: working with the Federal government to draft Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and to design national Head Start and Follow Through programs; publishing Bank Street Readers, the first multiracial, urban-oriented readers for young children; training staff in fourteen school districts in the educational uses of micro-computers; working with government at all levels to design both legislation and programs beneficial to children and families
Currently Bank Street College provides professional development to more than 20 percent of New York City's principals and works with the DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Fund to design and coordinate teacher preparation programs for minority students in ten Northeastern and Midwestern cities. Bank Street has also successfully designed the Math Learning Forums, an online professional development program for math educators and conducted research funded by the U.S. Department of Education's OERI to study First Steps, a literacy curriculum currently being implemented in some Massachusetts communities.
Bank Street College of Education was an early and active supporter of the America Reads initiative. Like Nancy Henry of NWREL, Bank Street project director Judith Gold, confident that the new partnership will help support the goals of National Service projects, says, "We are excited about bringing our years of experience in literacy and early childhood education to community literacy projects across the nation."
The Southern Regional Council (SRC) works to promote racial justice, protect democratic rights, and broaden civic participation in the Southern United States. Since its founding in 1919 as the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, SRC has engaged Southern communities on issues of democracy and race.
The SRC supported efforts that eventually brought an end to all-white primary elections in the 1940s, established human relations councils to keep public schools open in the 1950s, and founded the Voter Education Project in the 1960s and 1970s. SRC's current programs include Partnerships for Interracial Unity, Fair Representation, Public Education Reform and Communications. (The 1997 SRC civil rights radio documentary series, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" recently won a Peabody Award for outstanding achievement in broadcasting.)
SRC sees literacy as a civil right and a gateway to full citizenship. SRC's education programs aim to improve life chances for children, youth, and adults, with a focus on school reform. Using peer leadership strategies, SRC education programs develop local capacity-in schools and school districts, in community organizations, and in National Service projects-to create learning communities of adults that result in boosted achievement for students.
Together, the three partner organizations-Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Bank Street College of Education, and the Southern Regional Council-team up to bring new service to new and old education and literacy projects of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Reaching Out to Make a Change: Portland's Senior Volunteers
by Sarah Torian
While Portland, Oregon is quickly becoming the next Silicon Valley of the computer industry with an increasing demand for workers in the service sector and computer field, the city's school system is struggling. Portland consistently has lost tax increases that would benefit the schools and currently is facing an eight million dollar loss in funds. This decreased funding has forced many teachers into early retirement, sometimes in the middle of the school year, leaving confused children in larger classes with less staff.
In this challenging environment, fourteen Seniors for Schools and nineteen Experience Corps volunteers are making a real difference in the lives of 132 first and second graders at six Portland schools, working directly with the children and connecting with the parents and teachers to support their efforts in literacy training. The tutors can see these changes directly as they watch a child's reading ability and attitude change, and also in the structure and involvement of the parents, teachers, and community that will continue after the child and tutor move on.
The Portland project is part of a nine-project national demonstration program called Seniors for Schools, that enlists the services of men and women over the age of 55 to serve in teams and make a significant contribution to help children learn to read. This project is an integral component of President Clinton's "America Reads Challenge," (see page 10) working to ensure that every child can read by the end of third grade. The eight other Seniors for Schools projects are in Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; Leesburg, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York, New York.; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Port Arthur, Texas.*
Working Hand-in-Hand with Schools
One facet of the Portland project that former VISTA member and current Portland project director Angie Taub is most proud of is the volunteers' success in building connections with teachers, parents, and the community at large. "It is very important in terms of reaching our literacy goals," says Taub. "The children have to have the connection between home and community in order to succeed in the schools."
Senior volunteers regularly attend school meetings to develop an understanding of how their service fits into the operations of the school. They hold quarterly meetings with the principals to update them on the progress of their programs. They also attend staff meetings and trainings to stay knowledgeable about the school's goals and strategies.
The central facet of the tutor-school connection, of course, is the relationship between the tutor and the tutee's teacher. The Portland Seniors emphasize this relationship; teachers submit and discuss a Tutor Referral form for each tutee. This helps the tutor understand the situation of the tutee, where her skills are, and where her skills need improvement. "These forms and meetings aid in the communication with the teachers and the volunteers," says Taub, "because they have common ground in the children they are working with." By getting a chance to work closely with one another, the tutors and teachers develop relationships based on mutual respect. "The teachers are very overworked so we help out in the classroom as much as possible," says Ed Blystone, an Experience Corps volunteer at Lent Elementary School in Portland. "The teachers are very responsive to us. They really appreciate the extra help and that makes us feel good."
Partnerships with Parents
In order to make connections with the parents of all students and specifically the parents of the tutees, the Portland Seniors attend PTA meetings. This allows them to join in and support the parent activities and community programs already in existence, as well as help develop new programs. "The PTA is the logical connection to make when looking at parent involvement in the schools," Taub says. "Where there are PTA's there are book clubs/fairs and also fundraising opportunities for the schools and programs in the schools."
When no PTA existed at Woodlawn Elementary School, the volunteers united to develop a booster club. This club will provide a framework that parental groups can duplicate. The booster club is now working to recruit at least three parents to set up a plan for increased parental involvement in the future. They organized a "Grandparents Day" at the school and activities to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The volunteers hope that the organization they create will continue to strengthen the school's efforts after the children move on to higher grades.
Lent Elementary School in Portland provides an example of some of the positive effects of working towards the goal of solid parent connections. School staff had been having difficulties getting parents to come to the school, so the senior volunteers planned a "dance" for students and their families. Even though the schedules of the families-many of which are single-parent or have two working parents-make attending school events difficult, seventy-five families came out for the Valentine Dance. "The families enjoyed the dance tremendously," reports Taub. "It gave them a chance to socialize with other families and with their own children. Many of the families felt it was a nice evening away from home and the T.V."
Seniors at Lent Elementary School have plans to build on the successes of the Valentine Dance with their upcoming "Literary Luau." The "luau" will be held at the school and will involve activities to get parents to read with their children, to view reading as enjoyable, and to continue to read at home. They also have plans for a weekly movie night where they will show films for free to families. "Once you get the parents in the schools," says Blystone, " then you can talk to them and really make a difference."
When parents get excited about what their children are learning and how they can help them learn, the effects can be inspiring. While shopping at a local department store, one Portland volunteer saw a child that he had been tutoring for several months. When the child spotted him, he excitedly brought his father over to meet the volunteer. The child's father thanked him and explained how the effects of his work with the child had flowed into their house. Seeing how excited his son was to read, the father had been inspired to read with him and they now made reading a part of their daily activities together.
The volunteer and his whole team were inspired and encouraged by this story. The sense of giving back to their communities is a strong motivator behind their service. "Our volunteers will all tell you that reading was what really changed their lives," Taub says, "and they want to give that sense of excitement for reading and sense of wonder back to the children in their communities." As they help the children improve their reading skills and understanding, they see the children's attitudes change. "The volunteers also seem to gain a sense of what they have to contribute."
Creating a Community Effort
The volunteers' work builds connections beyond the children, parents, and teachers. "They do a great job of making connections to the neighborhoods and the communities in which the schools reside," says Taub. By making local residents feel that the schools are a part of their communities, regardless of whether or not they have children in the schools, the volunteers help get out the message that the schools' programs and activities are important and that community residents can and should be involved in making them a better asset to the children in the area. Portland Seniors for Schools volunteer Harvey Rice views using his position in the community as a tool to build connections as an integral part of his service. "By me volunteering-I know a lot of people because I work in real estate-I can help bring other volunteers to the project," he explains.
The number and location of the Portland schools served by Seniors for Schools and Experience Corps volunteers increases this community-building effect. Of the nine Seniors for Schools project sites, the Portland project serves the most schools, training volunteers to serve in six of the city's elementary schools. "Being in so many schools allows us to reach more kids in various geographic areas of Portland," says Taub. "It also offers the opportunity to serve-and to serve in their own neighborhood community-to more seniors." Harvey Rice agrees saying, "I'm committed to schools and I want to see them do better. I live in this neighborhood. I went to school with the principal. It just makes sense to me to give something back now."
* For profiles of the Seniors for Schools projects in Port Arthur, Philadelphia, and New York, see the June 1997, September 1997, and Winter 1997, respectively, issues of The Tutor.
MAKING MAGIC: Teachers and Corps Members Helping Children Learn
by Christine Faas
Teachers are key players in the National Service movement. Throughout the United States and beyond, teachers are working with members from AmeriCorps*USA, Learn and Serve, AmeriCorps*VISTA, Seniors Corps, and America Reads programs. Ideally, in these programs, members are stagehands in a drama where teachers are leaders. Together they are expecting a lot from students, envisioning possibilities and making things happen. It is in these programs that the impact of National Service is most evident. Members are connecting the strengths of teachers to the problems they face, and helping teachers create solutions. Together they are addressing education-related problems in their communities and setting up structures so children learn.
Providing Invaluable Service
AmeriCorps Members of APPALREAD (Appalachian Family Literacy Corps) in West Virginia serve as Reading Coaches, a direct connection between the home and school. They visit the home every week to inform parents about the child's progress and what the parents can do to help. They also work in the classroom with the teacher, focusing attention upon five students (the same ones they visit in the home) who are in special need of help with reading.
Amanda Martin, a Reading Coach and AmeriCorps member of APPALREAD, enjoys the home visits the most. Amanda explains: "Some parents don't know how to come into the school to take care of problems. As members develop relationships with the students' families, families are expressing their concerns to the members. We as members can then go back to the principal, ask him/her to contact the family and help the principal ask the right questions."
Creating Turn-Key Projects
Monica Plant, a staff member of the Administration in Developmental Disabilities Corps/AmeriCorps in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, understands how National Service members and teachers can best connect; she is trained as an elementary school teacher. Monica explains: "Teachers have a tremendous job. They are a parent, nurse, psychologist, and 'drill sergeant.' National Service programs will immediately turn teachers and administrators off if the project adds a tremendous amount of work and provides no support. Go in with the logistics worked out; then the school can make minor modifications depending on its needs. The teacher needs to know that this is not another task that will end up by the wayside because he/she doesn't have enough time and energy to keep it going."
Valuing Teacher Input
Scott Finn, director of APPALREAD, recognizes the importance of tutors working closely with teachers. He explains: "Our Reading Coaches work with the teacher and that teacher's curriculum, which has proven to be the best way of helping a child. Studies of the Title One Program show that pullout programs that are not connected with the classroom confuse students and do not significantly increase reading comprehension and skills. But programs that work closely with the classroom teacher to provide extra attention and support to students have proven very successful."
Mutual Respect
Elizabeth Adkins, a Corps member of APPALREAD was encouraged when she asked her assigned teacher if she could borrow some of the teacher's supplies for her activity. Her teacher's reply was, "Anything in this room that is mine is yours." Jason Croxall, Project Director of Project W.I.T.T., a tutoring and mentoring project in Idaho, encourages the same level of respect from his 22 AmeriCorps members for teachers and school administrators. He reminds them that principals view the school as their building, the window as their window, the children as their children, the hall as their hall. According to Croxall, "Principals and teachers with this type of love and commitment are the people we want to work with." He tells his members not to bow down to them, but to respect them. "We are coming into their house and working with their children," Croxall says.
Croxall also has advice for project directors. "Make sure you have good rapport with the school secretaries. Make sure everyone knows who you are and make yourself available the minute there is a problem." Croxall encourages extensive dialogue (both in the beginning and through monthly site visits) between program directors and the school's principal and teachers.
Constant Communication
AmeriCorps member Martin of APPALREAD explains that in her program, Corps members communicate with the teacher on a daily basis and meet with the principal once a week or at least once a month. Jaime Deason, a VISTA member in the DC READS program at Garrison Elementary School in Washington, DC, states: "Teachers feel free to come to us to give us updates on how their students are benefiting or how to better help a particular student."
Bruce Campbell, a teacher who started six alternative education programs in Oregon and Washington and works closely with AmeriCorps members, believes the relationship between teacher and member should be egalitarian. He encourages members, when they find themselves in conflict with their teacher, to focus on how to solve the problem rather than to focus on who is to blame. His message to members is, "Find time to discuss concerns with your assigned teacher. Come up with solutions and field-test these solutions. Don't eat things or think that if relations are tense it is your fault." He also urges teachers to invite dialogue. Finally, he encourages program coordinators to provide training in communication and assertiveness, so that when conflict arises, members have the ability and tools to resolve it.
Training and Orientation on Roles
According to Finn, "Members in APPALREAD are not teachers' aides or secretaries–they have clearly defined roles in tutoring a small number of children and serving as home-school connectors. Members also spend time observing the teacher they are to work with before they even begin to tutor, to learn more about their curriculum and their style of teaching."
Similar to the teachers in APPALREAD, Campbell asks his assigned member to watch him teach. Jason Croxall encourages new members to learn about the teacher's tremendous responsibilities and demanding schedule. He believes members should also learn the key strategies the teacher uses with children.
The Right Placement
Campbell warns program directors, "Understand the placements you have created and ask yourselves, 'What is the highest probability of success?' Don't send people out poorly matched. No match is better than a bad one."
Many people believe in parachuting members into the worst possible places. According to Campbell: "People think, 'They are young, creative, energetic. They can figure it out.' People need to realize that public schools can be one of the most stressful places in our country. Members don't necessarily have the training, experience, and/or temperament for any placement. Members need teachers who will provide direction, inspiration, and training."
Finn of APPALREAD agrees. "Some teachers and some teaching styles are more adept at taking advantage of using AmeriCorps members than others." If a member is in over her head, says Croxall, "We may be asking too much. Once a member is inside the school she may realize that this is not what she wants to do." A good partnership with the school district can allow the project director to restructure the placement in a way in which the ember will be more comfortable and successful. Other times, the member might need additional skills and training. For this Croxall uses "shadowing" as a tool. With the permission of the school, Croxall and the tutor shadow a more confident tutor in action for one day. "With two people nearby, available to answer questions, the member's confidence grows," says Croxall.
Advice to Teachers
Campbell cautions teachers. "Never expect the member to step in and lighten your load. Utilize the member to amplify and reinforce parts of your program that are important to your teaching goals." Campbell warns project directors, "Make sure you have developed a fully thought-out, well-articulated role for the member that is organic to the organization that the member is serving." For teachers that have been thinking about the idea of requesting a National Service member but have not acted on it, Campbell states, "You are missing a splendid opportunity. Try to educate yourself about the National Service mission. Be proactive; go out and find the opportunities for yourself." Croxall also encourages teachers to request a National Service member. While he acknowledges that some matches require extra training and attention, other times, "the magic just starts sparkling."
Building a Winning Team: Developing Effective Connections With Parents
by Sarah Torian
Parents are a primary influence in a child's life. They are the first educators that children encounter and they remain after teachers and tutors leave. Parents hold the potential to provide children with a wonderful example of the importance and value of reading in daily life. A partnership between tutors trained in teaching literacy and parents who are experts on their own children holds the potential to enhance any tutoring program. For these reasons, making strong connections with parents is an ideal part of successful tutoring.
Home Visits
The AmeriCorps members at Casa de Amigos, an organization providing health, dental, education, and social services to over 11,000 people each year in Midland, Texas, have made working with parents and families a priority in their literacy and education programs. The six full-time and eight part-time Members who work at Casa de Amigos conduct home visits to inventory the kinds of reading materials available there, lead weekly parenting sessions that involve both parents and children, and offer one-to-one tutoring. AmeriCorps Program Director Ludi Navarro says, "The children need to know that the parents are supporting them and encouraging them in their learning . . . . But the parents gain as well. They gain respect for the children as well as themselves, and self-esteem and pride."
Various barriers stand in the way of successful tutor-parent connections. Frequently, parents are intimidated by schools and school personnel, need to focus their concentration on the basic needs of survival, and/or do not have access to transportation to attend meetings with teachers and tutors. Navarro views the parents' low education levels as the greatest barrier to successful parent connections. "When the parents have not attained a high level of education," she says, "they don't emphasize it in their own lives or in their children's lives."
Reaching Out to Parents
To overcome these barriers, it is important for the tutors to constantly reach out to the parents. Writing personal notes and progress reports to convey good news can help to alter an impression of school personnel only being there when a child gets in trouble. The Seniors for Schools volunteers in Kansas City send personal notes home each Friday, with the teacher's note, informing the child's parents of events at school and their child's progress. Taking the time to call to report progress and good news also helps to break down barriers.
West Virginia's APPALREAD program is a partnership organization of AmeriCorps, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, local schools, Head Start centers, and non-profit organizations. APPALREAD members schedule weekly visits to the homes of tutees whose teachers feel could benefit from increased interaction with tutors. The tutors bring books and activities that the parents can do with their children and encourage the parents to make reading and learning a fun and interesting activity. They listen to parents describe the interests of their children, and teach the parents how to create "literacy friendly" environments in their own homes.
The APPALREAD volunteers are members of the communities they serve and, therefore, can connect with parents more easily than teachers. During their first family visits, the volunteers concentrate on developing a relationship with the parents and the whole family. "We don't go in with any agenda," says APPALREAD reading coach Susan Cassell. "Without building a relationship first, you can't get across to the parents the importance of reading."
Building Parental Networks
Holding meetings at the schools or local community centers is also a good way to break down the barriers between parents and tutors and teachers. Forum topics range from effective parenting and job training to available community services and stress and anger management. Tutors can use these meetings to teach parents, who frequently have limited reading skills themselves, how they can help their child increase her literacy skills. And they can listen to parents describe the ways they help their children. It is important to hold these meetings in locations and at times that are convenient to the parents.
Focusing these meetings around social activities ensures an informal, relaxed atmosphere. Potluck dinners, for example, featuring various ethnic and cultural foods, can be both educational and fun. Wearing name tags, identifying the parents by the names of their children, and scheduling time to share information about themselves and their children help to break the ice.
Providing transportation and child care for parents demonstrates that the volunteers value the presence and involvement of all parents.
A "community walk" by teachers from Bowie High School in El Paso, TX proved very effective in reaching out to the families of students. Teachers, many of whom did not live in the neighborhoods around the school, demonstrated their interest in the community by walking approximately thirty city blocks through housing projects and past community centers, social service agencies, and local landmarks, stopping along the way to interact with parents and residents. The walk culminated in a lunch for parents, teachers, staff, and administrators at the high school where they discussed ways to continue and strengthen the relationships developed that day.
The one-on-one tutoring project at Casa de Amigos, which is in its second year, had difficulty persuading parents to embrace the project initially. Even though they were referred to the program by their children's teachers, the parents were frequently hesitant about becoming involved. By visiting the children's homes to discuss with the parents on their own "turf" what the program could offer their children and the importance of one-on-one support, the tutors alleviated much of this initial hesitation. Of course, witnessing the effects in their children's reading skills and attitude was probably most instrumental in changing the feelings of hesitation to feelings of enthusiasm, resulting in the majority of the tutees in the second year of the program being referred by other parents.
Beyond One-To-One Tutoring: Literacy Activities and Approaches
by Tenera McPherson
Tutoring, tutoring and more tutoring! It appears that these days everyone in the nation is focused on literacy. While one-to-one tutoring is an effective tool in literacy development, there are many other ways to nurture children's learning. Projects, communities, and individuals can use their talents, skills, and resources to develop effective literacy activities that go beyond one-to-one tutoring.
Storytelling
One effective teaching technique some literacy programs are using is storytelling or visual imagery. According to Linda Fredericks, author of Using Stories to Prevent Violence and Promote Cooperation, everyone is compelled by stories, "When children listen to stories, they respond by creating images of the characters and places described by the words. This process of developing internal images and meaning in response to words is the basis of imagination."
"So what if children have a great imagination; how will this help me teach them?," you may ask. Fredericks notes that, "Researchers who study brain and behavioral development have identified imagination, not only as the essence of creativity, but as the basis for all higher order thinking. With imagination with the ability to understand symbols, create solutions, and find meaning in ideas, young people are more capable of mastering language, writing, mathematics, and other learnings that are grounded in the use of symbols." Storytelling has been shown to increase vocabulary, refine speaking abilities, promote interest in reading, enhance listening and writing skills, and develop critical thinking skills.
Telling fairy tales, folk tales, and even personal stories are effective means for volunteers and parents alike to help children develop literacy and critical-thinking skills.
A Storytelling Troupe
The Seniors for Schools project in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has developed a school storytelling troupe. Volunteers meet on a regular basis and help each other learn cultural stories to share with the children. For Black History Month, Seniors for Schools volunteers selected stories that honor the traditions of African Americans. To get started, volunteers put together packets of information, including flyers and surveys and distributed them to all teachers in their partner school. Volunteers then met, reviewed requests, and scheduled storytelling sessions around the teachers' schedules. There are many things other than storytelling that your project can do.
Post Office, Pen Pals, and More
You can create a school post office for children to send letters to each other, or design a pen pal program with other schools in other parts of your state or perhaps even across the country (as volunteers with the Port Arthur Seniors for Schools project are doing). In New York, Seniors for Schools volunteers are reading plays with second graders and then encouraging the children to act out the stories.
In Cleveland, Ohio and Port Arthur, Texas Seniors for Schools volunteers are organizing community book fairs. Check with your local malls and community centers to find out whether they are willing to be drop-off points for contributors. This is a wonderful project that provides an opportunity for true community involvement and collaboration.
Many children love to show their creative sides. Literacy volunteers can develop afterschool programs that begin with homework assistance and end with fun activities such as board games, sports, or crafts. After-school programs can focus on certain topics such as science, cooking, or arts.
One of the best ways to get the most out of your afterschool program is to survey your volunteers and know their strengths and talents. For example, if you have volunteers who play the piano and are willing to develop a curriculum around teaching piano and helping children learn music, this could become a feature in an afterschool program. You may have volunteers who are retired from careers in science or medicine. These careers provide rich learning for children of all ages. Other volunteers may have spent their lives as homemakers and have strengths such as cooking, sewing, gardening, etc. Remember that all of these offer strong literacy links. Gardening involves math and science and makes a rich teaching environment. Your literacy project can work with volunteers to help them develop curriculum around these topics.
But be sure to include an important ingredient: fun. Children need to enjoy the experience and see the pleasure you take from the project. As Albert Schweitzer said, "There are three ways to teach a child. The first is by example. The second is by example. The third is by example."
Look for ways to engage parents in the teaching process. Volunteers from Philadelphia's Seniors for Schools project organized a Parents' Breakfast at their school. Fourteen out of sixty parents attended an 8:30 a.m. breakfast to learn about ways that they can support their children's learning. Volunteers personally made phone calls to parents and sent letters inviting them to the breakfast. During the meeting, volunteers met with parents of the children they're tutoring to explain their roles, goals, and objectives. Project director Rob Tietze said the school principal and school district representative attended the meeting, adding enthusiastically, "The principal is really excited about this!"
To order a copy of Using Stories to Prevent Violence and Promote Cooperation, contact the Colorado School Mediation Project, 3970 Broadway, Suite B3, Boulder, CO 80304, (303) 444-7671 (phone), (303) 444-7247 (fax).
America Reads Challenge
by Sarah Torian
Reading forms the strong foundation needed for school learning, self-sufficiency, responsible citizenship, and productive employment. This belief is a driving force behind the America Reads Challenge, which seeks to ensure that all children have an opportunity to develop strong reading and comprehension skills by the end of the third grade. Formally announced by President Bill Clinton in the State of the Union Address of January 1997, America Reads is a federal initiative that seeks to mobilize a well-trained, coordinated army of a million volunteers from all walks of life-college students, business leaders, senior citizens, and more-to coach, tutor, and help our children be able to read well and independently by the end of third grade.
America Reads does not replace or supplant the roles of teachers and parents, but instead works in conjunction with educators and parents to complement and expand existing literacy efforts. Across the country, thousands are tutoring children during school hours, offering homework assistance in after-school programs, helping schools surmount tough problems, and offering assistance to parents who seek to be more involved in their child's education.
The U.S. Department of Education, one of the three "parents" of America Reads, along with the Corporation for National and Community Service and President Clinton, has developed a summer program model called Read* Write* Now! to fight the "summer reading dropoff." This program, which expects to reach 1.5 million children, encourages children to read thirty minutes a day at least once or twice a week with a reading partner, acquire and use a library card, and learn one vocabulary word each day during the summer months.
In addition, President Clinton has proposed that 100,000 Federal Work-Study students serve as tutors in support of the America Reads Challenge. As an incentive, schools receive a waiver of the 25 percent match requirement for Federal Work-Study students who are tutoring in literacy programs. These students will significantly increase the capacity of America Reads programs.
New Resources
- The Center for School Success at the Southern Regional Council provided training, technical assistance, and free materials to directors of National Service education-based programs, from February 1, 1995 to March 1, 1998. Now SRC joins LEARNS partners to continue this work.
- In July 1997, the Southern Regional Council was selected to provide training and technical assistance to a new Corporation for National and Community Service project, Seniors for Schools, via site visits, resources, training, and conferences, helping Seniors launch new activities that engage seniors with K-3 students.The Southern Regional Council also leads a Middle School Reform Intiative in Atlanta which helps the Office of Middle Schools and 17 middle schools to involve parents, teachers, and community members improve schools.
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