Simple Things

Schools, Librarians, Grandparents, Seniors, and Concerned Citizens Can Do to Help

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Source

U.S Department of Education

Contents

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Simple Things Schools Can Do to Help

School Personnel and Staff:

1. Start a schoolwide or community reading program. Two good ways to begin are to set up an America Reads Challenge: READ*WRITE*NOW! program or to sponsor an after-school AmeriCorps project. Identify students who need extra help in reading. Keep your school open in the evenings and on weekends to provide a safe site for children and tutors. Encourage older students to volunteer as reading tutors and reading teachers to help train tutors. Ask your librarian to identify appropriate reading materials. Ask your school district's special education office to provide special training for volunteers working with students with disabilities. When children complete the program, reward them with a special activity such as a field trip.
   
   
2. Encourage family members to get involved in teaching and learning reading skills and raising standards. Let families know what they can do at home to help children become better readers, so that their children can read independently and well by the end of third grade. Send home periodic progress reports on each child with suggestions on how families can help their children improve.
   
   
3. Publish a multilingual school newsletter. Take advantage of your school's ethnic diversity. Encourage multilingual teachers, families, and students to help. If you do not have a multilingual population, encourage your school's language clubs to contribute.
   
   

Teachers:

1. Rigorously teach reading and writing skills and the core academic subjects. Focus reading activities on developing higher-order thinking skills as well as on basic skills. Compare your reading curriculum and materials with those of the most successful schools and the best state standards.
   
   
2. Set high expectations for your students and encourage families to do the same. If you expect a lot from your students, they will work to meet your expectations and expect more of themselves. Consult with appropriate school or district staff on how to extend high expectations to include students with learning challenges and special needs.
   
   
3. Encourage students to read at home with their families. Provide suggested age-graduated children's book lists to families. Families are often unsure of the level at which their child reads; book lists can help them choose books of appropriate difficulty, and provide examples of high-quality children's books. Develop a rewards system for students who take books home, read with their families, and report back on the books they have read.
   
   
4. Plan a field trip to the local library. Contact the head librarian to arrange for a guided tour and explanation of how students can use the library. Have all students sign up for their own library cards during this visit. If any of your students have visual, hearing, or learning disabilities, tell the librarians before the visit so that they can make the necessary accommodations. Ask about special resources such as books on tape, sign-language interpreters, books in Braille or large print, and accessibility for wheelchairs.
   
   
5. Encourage students to go to the school library and to the local library after school. Such visits will help develop a link in the child's mind between free time and reading. Work with the school librarian or media specialist to place a collection of age-appropriate books on topics of high interest to your students in a special area.
   
   
6. Use interesting community settings to stimulate reading and writing. Organize students and their families to conduct an oral history project, a history or case study of their school, or a neighborhood project that involves collecting local stories or recipes for a community cookbook.
   
   
7. Have students frequently work in groups. Group work allows students with varying levels of literacy and language proficiency to both gain from and contribute to each other's learning. Rotate group members regularly to ensure that students work with all of their classmates.
   
   
8. Encourage the academic achievement of students with limited English proficiency. Include books in the native languages of students in the classroom library. Obtain or develop appropriate native language materials and technology for classroom use. Provide daily opportunities for students to read and write in both their first and second languages.
   
   

Administrators:

1. Encourage your teachers to work together to teach reading and writing across all the subjects. Encourage them to develop interdisciplinary courses. Provide opportunities for special educators to share with general educators effective strategies for working with students who have learning challenges. Introduce challenging reading and writing activities and provide technology to engage all students.
   
   
2. Offer extended learning time for students after school and in the summer to increase reading opportunities. Keep your school open beyond regular school hours and in the summer as a community learning center. Organize volunteer reading partners to come in during those times and read with your students. Request assistance from your school district's special education office to provide training for volunteers working with students who have learning challenges.
   
   
3. Establish a family literacy program. Provide literacy, parenting, and early childhood education programs for language-minority families and other families with literacy needs and their children. Devote a PTA meeting to how to become a reading tutor and to inform parents of effective methods of reading with their children. Send home information about these programs in the family's native language, where necessary.
   
   
4. Implement systematic and routine homework schedules. Help families know what to expect of their children regularly and how to monitor assignments. Ensure that all teachers regularly assign challenging homework. Develop and send home a sheet of suggestions for families about how to help their children with their schoolwork.
   
   
5. Provide high quality staff development in second-language acquisition and bilingualism. Students with limited English proficiency experience greater success in school when their teachers understand the role of the first language in literacy learning. Encourage teachers to become familiar with the native language of their students.
   
   

Simple Things Librarians Can Do to Help

1. Learn more about the America Reads Challenge. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for fliers on the America Reads Challenge and READ*WRITE*NOW! and provide them to the public. Contact your local READ*WRITE*NOW! program and see how your library can help.
   
   
2. Work with local partners to start a community reading program. One good way to begin is to set up an America Reads Challenge: READ*WRITE*NOW! program. Identify quality reading materials for the program. Look into providing materials in Braille, large-print texts, books on tape. Use communication specialists such as sign-language interpreters. Establish structured learning time at the library to give children who need extra help opportunities to become successful readers. Volunteer to train tutors or serve as a community coordinator. Offer the library as a safe site for the community program. Promote a special sign-up day for children to come in and get their own library cards.
   
   
3. Help children learn how to use the library's resources effectively. Provide free orientation sessions on how to use the library. Encourage local businesses and community groups to donate computer hardware and software, then offer special sessions for children to be trained in the use of the computer.
   
   
4. Help parents who cannot read or have low-level literacy skills. Offer tutoring services to those who cannot read or who have low-level literacy skills. Contact your local school, church, or neighborhood organization to find a tutor.
   
   
5. Expand your library's resources, particularly computers and children's software programs. Let families and children know that the Internet offers them a wealth of free information. Offer free introductory sessions on how to use these resources. Include equipment and software for children with physical and learning disabilities.
   
   
6. Ask your local schools how you can help them improve students' reading. Contact your local schools and offer to give short library presentations in the classrooms. Ask how the library can help meet the needs of children with disabilities.
   
   
7. Increase opportunities for preschoolers and their child care workers to visit the library. Invite groups of preschoolers from local child care centers to attend special reading programs at the library. Offer recognition to children who have read (or listened to) a certain number of books. Let caregivers know that they should encourage families to visit the library with their children.
   
   
8. Help motivate all children to read for enjoyment. Identify children's favorite subjects and direct them to books, magazines, book/cassette kits, videos, computer software, and other library resources. Make the necessary arrangements for special resources to enable children with special needs also to read for enjoyment.
   
   
9. Work with local parent groups to establish a parent or grandparent corps of volunteer reading tutors. Identify a volunteer coordinator, reading specialist, teacher, or librarian to plan and develop procedures for recruitment and service. Contact the local PTA, senior center, or Retired and Senior Volunteer Program office to recruit volunteers. Consider helping children with learning challenges and special needs. Provide the training tutors will need when working with these students. Ask your local Foster Grandparent Program to provide senior citizen mentors with this training.
   
   
10. Collect and distribute information that will help families improve their children's reading skills. Circulate America Reads Challenge: READ*WRITE*NOW! materials and encourage similar efforts in the community. Display and provide suggested book lists for children of a wide age range.
    
    

Simple Things Grandparents, Seniors, and Concerned Citizens Can Do to Help

1. Become a learning partner/reading tutor to a child in your neighborhood or from your local elementary school. Volunteer to read with or to a child for 30 minutes a week for at least eight weeks. Take the child to the library to get him or her a library card.
   
   
2. Start a community reading program. One good way to begin is to help set up an America Reads Challenge: READ*WRITE*NOW! project. Volunteer to serve as a tutor or a community coordinator. Contact your local senior centers, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program office, Foster GrandParents Program, retirement homes, and other community groups to recruit tutors. Work with local schools to set up matches between community members and children.
   
   
3. Ask your public librarian how you can help at your local library. Offer to volunteer after school in the children's section, reading stories or helping children pick out books. Offer to develop a program or support an existing summer reading program at the library.
   
   
4. Encourage community businesses and nonprofit organizations to help support community reading programs. Establish contacts by visiting local businesses and organizations. Encourage them to donate supplies and to allow their employees time off to volunteer in local schools. Make sure the supplies they donate meet the needs of children who have special learning or physical challenges by including materials such as books in Braille, large-print texts, and books on tape.
   
   
5. Develop a monthly program at your library, school, or community center in which seniors discuss their oral histories with children. Speak with local retirement homes and senior centers to enlist seniors who would be willing to tell children a highlight of their life stories. Arrange for a location where the program can be held, and advertise it.
   
   
6. Be supportive of school, community, and state efforts to meet high reading academic standards. Let your neighbors know the importance of reading and meeting the President's AMERICA READS CHALLENGE. Make an effort to stay informed about your local school's reading programs and current issues.
   
   

Continue on to part 4 of this article