Book Buddies, First Edition: Guidelines for Volunteer Tutors of Emergent and Early Readers

Volunteer tutors can make a tremendous difference in the reading skills and the lives of young children. This comprehensive tutorial manual has been developed from the Book Buddies program of Charlottesville, Virginia, the first large-scale model to mobilize hundreds of community volunteers in an alternative one-on-one intervention for children at risk for reading failure. A complete how-to resource for both trainers and tutors in one accessible volume, the book provides guidelines for setting up a successful tutorial program in the early grades and presents a field-tested lesson format for individualized instruction in reading, writing, and phonics. The authors clearly describe how to conduct a wealth of enjoyable reading activities and exercises with students, illustrating each chapter with real-life examples and lively line drawings. Appendices feature reproducible assessment and lesson planning forms, alphabet cards and charts, recommendations and sources for children's books and other materials, and a helpful glossary. Vividly portraying the Book Buddies model in practice, two training videos for volunteers demonstrate tutorial sessions with emergent readers at different stages in the learning process. Each program reviews the Emergent Reader Lesson Plan outlined in the Book Buddies manual, with live footage of every component bringing the material to life. Presenters Marcia Invernizzi and Connie Juel provide extensive commentary on each session, explaining the rationale behind specific activities, discussing how to engage children and when and how to correct their mistakes, and offering pointers on methods and materials.

Table of Contents:
Volunteer Tutorials. The Role of the Volunteer Coordinator. Evaluating Beginning Readers. General Tutoring Plan for the Emergent Reader. General Tutoring Plan for the Early Reader. Appendix A: Forms for Tutors. Appendix B: Resources.