Intended as a guide to aid inservice teachers and school administrative personnel in developing an effective program for the utilization of school volunteers, this document discusses the merits of a volunteer program and provides concrete suggestions for program design and implementation. Five steps towards a volunteer program delineated by the…

The America Reads Challenge (ARC) program, part of AmeriCorps, has the primary goal of ensuring that all children can read proficiently by the end of third grade. In Mississippi, the ARC program is referred to as the America Reads-Mississippi (ARM) program. In 1999, 37 schools in 25 school districts participated in this program, sponsored by 3…

Book Buddies is a community volunteer tutorial that began in Charlottesville, Virginia in the early 1990s as a cooperative effort between the University of Virginia, the Charlottesville City Schools and the Charlottesville community. A replication of Book Buddies was designed in fall of 1997 for two elementary schools in Millville, Virginia. A…

A study was conducted to ascertain the relationship between volunteer reading tutors and the reading scores of the tutored students in the primary grades. Two groups of children were studied (N=33), and their progress in reading was observed over a period of six months. One group of children from an urban public school worked with a volunteer…

The purpose of this study was to describe tutor and student participants in a national volunteer adult literacy program, the National Affiliation for Literacy Advance, and obtain a measure of student reading achievement over time. A sample of 1,000 tutors, each representing themselves and one of their students was selected. Information was…

This document is a copy of a talk regularly given to new volunteers of English in Action, a community-based organization that provides conversation practice to non-native English speakers. The volunteer tutors typically have no formal English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) training. This packet is designed to help these volunteers be effective ESL…

This study evaluated the effects of using the Edmark Reading Program, Level 1, to develop sight-word vocabulary in first graders at risk for reading failure. This program is a highly structured approach based on providing explicit, direct instruction that is intensive, focused, and not of brief duration. The 62 students receiving the intervention…

This study examined the variables that affect vocational teachers' implementation of an educational innovation--peer tutors for mainstreamed special education students. The researchers explored teachers' perceptions of the peer tutoring program prior to the inservice session, at the completion of a pilot test, and prior to the second year of…

Four papers focus on approaches to providing literacy education. "Language and Community Building: An Intergenerational Approach" (Gail Weinstein-Shr) describes a Temple University (Pennsylvania) program to involve volunteers in English-as-a-second-language instruction to refugee children and their elders. This program provides volunteer…

Two college faculty members have developed two speech communication courses specifically designed to increase the communication skills and self-confidence of non-native speakers of English. One course teaches pronunciation skills, including stress, rhythm, and intonation. The second focuses on speaking and listening skills for getting acquainted,…

Since 1980, the percentage of ethnic minority students at Golden West College (GWC) has nearly doubled. To meet the English language needs of this rapidly growing student population, a speaking and listening course was introduced into the curriculum in 1982, followed by a pronunciation course in 1985. Both courses were part of the…