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

U.S. Department of Education Federal Work-Study Updates

FEDERAL WORK-STUDY UPDATE

March 1999

WHAT'S IN THIS UPDATE:

FREE Teleconference on "Delivering Effective Tutor Training"
Resource List for America Reads Programs
Training Videos Available through ETR Associates
"FREE" Website
Group Activity Ideas from LEARNS

AND MORE!!!



A MESSAGE FROM DIRECTOR CAROL H. RASCO

March in Washington, DC is a funny month?one day, snow, and the very next day brings warm, sunny weather! This year, however, I?ve hardly had time to notice, because the multitude of America Reads activities have lent new meaning to the term "March Madness!"

By the time you?re reading this the Reading Excellence and Class Size Reduction workshops will be over?and if the first three are any measure they have been quite successful. In Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, DC, New York, Chicago and Charlotte, a wide array of people have come together to learn more about these new grant competitions and network with each other.

I am extremely excited to announce that the Department of Education has partnered with the University of Vermont to make possible a FREE satellite teleconference an "America Reads Tutoring Support Program: Delivering Effective Tutor Training." Dr. Judith Ramaley, President of the University of Vermont, has continually demonstrated her support for America Reads, and has served on the Steering Committee of College and University Presidents since January of 1997. Dr. Ramaley and her staff, in conjunction with the America Reads Challenge Office at the Department, are developing a quality program which will address ways to ensure quality training for tutors. A flyer advertising the teleconference is enclosed with this UPDATE, and a more detailed brochure will be mailed to you under separate cover in the next few weeks. I strongly encourage each campus with satellite capabilities to consider hosting a downlink ? and invite tutors, faculty, administrators, community members, and more! April 26 - save the date!

RESOURCE LIST

The Department of Education and the Corporation for National Service have created an informal document listing resources for America Reads programs. This list, enclosed with this UPDATE, is a true work in progress, and by no means exhaustive. Please use it however you?d like, and let us know what you think by e-mailing Laura.Wood@ed.gov. Thank you!

COMMUNICATION WITH YOU!

The Department of Education and the Corporation for National Service would like to ensure that these UPDATES and other communications from our offices reach the appropriate person(s) on your campus. If you would like to be added to (or removed from) our mailing list, please feel free to e-mail Jeff Gale at Jgale@cns.gov, or send us a fax at (202) 260-8114. Please note that this is completely voluntary on your part ? we are just trying to communicate with you and your campus as effectively as possible. If you would like to provide us with updated information, we would appreciate having:

  1. Your name,
  2. Your title,
  3. Institution,
  4. Address,
  5. Phone,
  6. Fax,
  7. E-mail.

Remember ? this is completely voluntary!

VIDEOS AVAILABLE FOR AMERICA READS TRAININGS

Bank Street College of Education, part of the LEARNS (Linking Education and America Reads through National Service) partners, has produced three videos which may be used for America Reads literacy trainings. The videos focus on three different areas: learning to read, reading comprehension, and reading in English. Each video is accompanied by a guide. You may order one of each from ETR associates; an order form with additional information is enclosed with this UPDATE.

SUMMER?S COMING!

It may seem hard to imagine, but summer will be here before we know it, and for too many children summer means months without the company of teachers, tutors, and good books. As a way to wind your America Reads program down for the school year, consider hosting a book program in which tutors, their students, parents and others can participate. Jan Paschal, Secretary Riley?s Regional Representative in Boston, offers three suggestions for putting together a successful book program:

  1. Your group might take up books and distribute them to children in the schools where you send tutors. The children would then get to take the books home so they have stories to read during the summer.
  2. Your group might collect books and send them to another school where the need is greater. Jan organized a program like this, and enlisted the help of the U.S. Coast Guard to pick up and deliver the books! You might also set up an assembly, where students representing your school could personally give the books to their peers.
  3. Jan also collected books and had them shipped to children in South Africa through America Reads/South Africa Reads! Once again, the Coast Guard pitched in. Books were distributed to children throughout South Africa by the South African Emergency Management Team.

FINALS GOT YOU DOWN?

For many college students, April and May means long days in the library studying for final exams. For some America Reads tutors, this might mean missing a day or two with their student(s). Here are some ideas, courtesy of the LEARNS partners, on ways to structure a day when you?re short on tutors:

  • Writer?s Workshop

    Resource: The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy McCormick Calkins, 1994.

    Additional Resource: The Writing Workshop: A World of Difference. A Guide for Staff Development by Lucy Calkins and Shelley Harwayne, 1987.

    Create a "writer?s workshop" where kids write on an ongoing basis, as well as edit, publish, and share with their peers. Calkins? book was written for teachers, but could be adapted for an after-school or group tutoring setting. Tutors could provide support and encouragement, facilitate the publication process, and even conduct "mini lessons," drawing together small groups of kids interested or ready to focus on a particular element of writing.

    Here are a few excerpts from Calkins? book:

    Work Time: "During work time, students go to their desks, tables or patches of floor space as artists in a studio go to their stations, and they work on their ongoing projects."

    Share Sessions: "One format for a share session is that each of three or four children take a turn sitting in the author?s chair at the front of the circle reading notebook entries or a draft aloud and soliciting responses from listeners."

    Publication: "As soon as your workshop is underway, it is time to help children view themselves as authors. Publish the pieces, put out bookbinding supplies, celebrate their finished work?"

  • Centers or Small Groups

    Resources:

    Help America Read: A Handbook for Volunteers by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas

    How to Make Pop-Up Books by Joan Irvine

    Wishes, Lies and Dreams by Kenneth Koch

    Beyond Words: Writing Poems with Children. A Guide for Parents and Teachers by Elizabeth McKim and Judith W. Steinbergh

    Websites: www.nwrel.org/learns/index.html and www.bnkst.edu/

    Create centers or work in small groups with a tutor overseeing each cluster. Numerous resources provide examples of possible activities. Ideas might include:

    • Writing books with children ("research" topics of interest and then make books, have kids contribute a page to a "class book," etc.)
    • Publishing books (Make covers out of mat board ? often free at frame stores - wallpaper samples, or other collected art supplies; be creative, make shape books reflecting the story?s content, accordian books, big books or pop-up books. The kids don?t have to be able to read and write to be publishers?with your help!)
    • Writing Poetry ("Pass the Poem", "Word Bowl", create a pattern poem and have kids create new lines, experiment with Haiku.)
    • Responding to literature through the arts (Let kids draw, paint or play with clay while listening to a story; have kids create a 3-dimensional representation of the book?s setting, make puppets or masks of the characters and retell the story; make collages, murals.)
    • Reading (Have an adult read aloud to the group, provide a quiet time for silent reading, or include a listening center with tapes; have kids record their own stories, invite a professional story teller to visit your program.)
    • Responding to literature (Journal writing, picture story maps, word webs, shared writing, literature circles ? students share responses orally with peers, have kids make posters and advertisements.)
    • Acting out stories (Gather multiple copies of a book or script and have kids conduct Reader?s theater or let kids make up plays, radio advertisements or commercials ? encourage oral expressiveness.)
    • Writing letters, notes, messages, labels, riddles, cartoons, "mad-libs" (to family, peers, authors.)
    • HAVE FUN!

    FREE WEBSITE

    The FREE, Federal Resources for Educational Excellence, website is a Federal inter-agency site for teaching and learning resources. It has hundreds of resources for teachers, parents, children, tutors, and others. The URL is http://ed.gov/free/ - and it has an area you might be interested in called Special Resources for Teachers (http://ed.gov/free/teachers.html). Happy surfing!

    AN AMERICA READS SNAPSHOT

    An America Reads project director in Minneapolis, MN runs a program with a diverse group of volunteers from the communities surrounding the schools. Her small (but growing!) program consists of about ten volunteer tutors, including recent Russian immigrants as well as African American and white volunteers, all of whom are working with children to improve their reading skills. One of the volunteers is a blind man who listens to the children read and then has them spell out a word if they get stuck. He also catches children?s errors by paying attention to the sentences they read aloud. The project director says that he is very open with the children about how he became blind and has helped them become more sensitive and understanding of disabilities in general.

    UPCOMING EVENTS

    • FWS Roundtable: Missoula, Montana, March 29, 1999. Call Marsha Adler at (415) 338-6879 or email her at mnadler@sfsu.edu for more details.
    • Community-Campus Partnerships for Health's 3rd Annual National Conference: Leadership for Healthier Communities and Campuses, March 27-30, 1999, Seattle, Washington, www.futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph.html.
    • 10th Annual National Service Learning Conference, sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Council, San Jose, California, April 18-21, 1999, www.nylc.org.
    • 8th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy, sponsored by the National Center for Family Literacy, Louisville, Kentucky, April 18- 20, 1999, www.famlit.org.
    • American Educational Research Association (AERA) 1999 Annual Meeting,

    Montreal, Canada, April 19-23 1999, http://www.aera.net/index.html.

    • Phi Theta Kappa, International Honor Society of the Two Year College 81st International Convention, April 29-May 1, 1999, Anaheim, California, www.ptk.org.
    • National Tutoring Association Seventh Annual Conference, May 2-5, 1999, Orlando, Florida, http://nta.jsu.edu.
    • 1999 National Community Service Conference, sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, June 6-9 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada, www.pointsoflight.org.

    FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT AMERICA READS

    The America Reads Listserv is a forum for interested parties to discuss questions and best practices regarding America Reads programs. To subscribe:

    Address an e-mail to: majordomo@etr-associates.org
    Type (in the text): subscribe americareads

    Carol H. Rasco, Director, America Reads Challenge
    Laura Wood, Coordinator, FWS/ARC Program
    U.S. Department of Education
    400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202-0107
    Ph: (202) 401-8888, Fax: (202) 260-8114
    E-mail: Laura.Wood@ed.gov

    Dr. Marsha Adler, Office of the President, San Francisco State University
    1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132
    Ph: (415) 338-6879, Fax: (415) 338-6885
    E-mail mnadler@sfsu.edu

    Jeff Gale, Corporation for National Service
    1201 New York Avenue, N.W., 9th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20525
    Ph: (202) 606-5000 ext. 280, Fax: (202) 565-2789
    E-mail: Jgale@cns.gov

    Toll free number for comments or ordering publications: 1-800-USA-LEARN or TDD 1-800-437-0833

    For information on the America Counts Challenge:

    Wendy Goldstein, U.S. Department of Education
    400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20202
    Ph: (202) 401-3030, Fax: (202) 401-9027,
    E-mail: Wendy.Goldstein@ed.gov

    www.ed.gov/americacounts/

    Toll free number for comments or ordering publications: 1-800-USA-LEARN or TDD 1-800-437-0833