WICHITA ADULT LITERACY COUNCIL, INC.
Volunteer Reading Tutor Orientation & Training Schedule
940-766-1954
ETraining LocationD
Wichita Adult Literacy Council office
Galaxy Building
4309 Old Jacksboro Hwy., Ste. 105
Wichita Falls, TX 76302
January 2016
Training Workshops Saturday January 16th 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
(attend both sessions) Saturday January 23rd 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
June 2016
Training Workshops Tuesday, June 14th 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
(attend all sessions) Thursday, June 16th 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tuesday, June 21st 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Thursday, June 23rd 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
? Call 766-1954 for information and to register
· Volunteers – make a one-year commitment to your tutoring position
· Volunteers - resolve training date conflicts with WALC staff or tutor trainers
· Volunteers - meet with your student weekly. WALC staff helps coordinate the location
· Volunteers - attend all training sessions before being matched with a student
· Volunteers - are matched with an adult learner by a WALC staff member
Wichita Adult Literacy Council, Inc.
4309 Old Jacksboro Hwy. Ste. 105
Wichita Falls, TX 76302
940-766-1954
Job Description: WALC Volunteer Reading Tutor
Purpose: To assist an individual age 17 (legally out of school) or older to improve reading and writing skills using a one-on-one instructional setting, emphasizes on workforce, family, and personal literacy goals and self-esteem building.
Qualifications: No diploma, degree, or professional training required—WALC provides all training
Willingness to commit to duties and responsibilities of WALC volunteer tutor
Well-developed reading ability and the wish to share this ability with a non-reader
Desire to help adult non-readers attain their personal literacy/workforce goals
Willingness to accept diversity of WALC clients
Agree to respect client confidentiality
Desirable character traits of a WALC volunteer tutor:
Belief that adults can learn; positive thinker; optimistic; enthusiastic,
patient; dependable; flexible, creative, sense of humor, friendly, ability to relate to others and exercise empathy, willingness to learn
Duties and
Responsibilities: Volunteer tutors provide encouragement and support to the adult learner by:
*meeting with client at the location, time, and day(s) agreed to by tutor, client, and WALC coordinator.
*following a course of instruction within the framework of WALC policies and recommendations.
*keeping regular lesson times and notifying client as early as possible of any necessary absence.
*preparing lesson prior to tutoring session for optimum use of time.
*submitting monthly time and client progress calendars to WALC office.
*seeking guidance from WALC coordinator regarding supplemental training materials or if other issues occur.
*keeping tutoring skills current by attending periodic in-service training.
*assisting WALC coordinator in administering progress assessments.
Time Commitment: Minimum of six month commitment; one year encouraged with short breaks for vacations or family matters permissible.
Tutors/clients meet for two 1.5 hour sessions weekly at a public location easily accessible by both parties.
WALC staff will help tutors select a tutoring location.
Training: Attend all sessions of 9 hour tutor training conducted by Pro-Literacy certified trainers.
Training covers use of Laubach basic reading series, supplemental methods, and materials for teaching the adult non-reader or ESL learner as well as the learning and coping characteristics of the under-educated adult learner.
WALC Volunteer Reading Tutors:
Extraordinary people who specialize in making the impossible possible.
Wichita Adult Literacy Council, Inc. (WALC)
FAQ – Volunteer Tutor Training
How often do a student and a tutor meet? Who pays for training/supplies?
An individual commits to volunteer for weekly teaching sessions with a student for a minimum of one year. WALC provides all the training and materials needed, although you can supplement with your own materials too, if you like. Volunteers attend 12 hours of training. The method used to teach adults by WALC tutors is called Laubach Way to Read, developed by Frank Laubach. (An Internet Google search of the Laubach name or ProLiteracy will provide a great deal of information about this teaching method designed to teach adults to read through the association process.) Lesson plans are provided for the tutor in the teacher’s book. The only lesson preparation tutors must do is a review of the information prior to meeting with their student or developing lessons the tutor and student agree upon such as study for the driver’s license test, study of a road map, the phone book, etc.
Tutors are matched with a student based on many factors. WALC staff makes the best match possible. You will meet at least once a week with your student. Two meetings a week is recommended and assignment of homework is encouraged.
Who determines when/where we meet?
When you attend training, you will be asked what days and times are good for you to tutor. You will then be matched with someone who has availability similar to your own. You can meet any number of places, such as a church, library, the WALC offices, the tutor’s place of employment, or any other public place. During tutor training you will be advised not to meet at your home or the student’s home for privacy and protection reasons.
What is the student/tutor relationship like?
There is great diversity among our adult learners; they vary in reading level, age, ethnicity, and ability. Most tutor/student matches work out great, some matches develop into lasting relationships beyond the completion of the basic four-book program that WALC tutors use. Some students join the program and later withdraw, for various reasons. If that does happen, or if a tutor-student combination doesn’t work well, WALC will assign the tutor a new student. There always seem to be more students than tutors. If you have questions or concerns about the student you are working with or about the student’s progress, please discuss your concerns with a WALC staff member.
What do I need to know about the student I will help learn to read?
The WALC staff will inform you of the learner’s reading level, special needs and education level, age, and other identifying information. It is up to you at your first meeting and over time to become acquainted with your student, to help him or her establish personal literacy and workforce goals, and explore other
literacy needs they may confide in you, such as understanding written medical instructions, bank statements and so forth. As you’ll find out in tutor training, each student is an individual with distinct needs. He or she may learn quickly or slowly, many are very committed to the process and others not so much. All students need encouragement and support. They need to see they are making progress toward obtaining their goals. One of the most critical items you need to know is this: if you make the commitment to become a volunteer reading tutor you need to honor that commitment unless an unforeseen circumstance forces you to stop working with your learner. Many of WALC’s clients have esteem issues and have suffered rejection in many segments of their lives. Losing their tutor, especially if they have established a trust relationship and have disclosed personal matters to the tutor, is devastating to the client. Many view it as a further act of rejection. They usually blame themselves for the loss.
What if I need to take time off for vacation or for medical reasons?
Of course if something comes up that you cannot control and you must move or if job or family needs make meeting with your student impossible, the student will be reassigned to another tutor. Most tutors typically arrange to meet with their students around their other obligations. It will be up to you and your student to work out an agreeable schedule; some students need to meet during the day, others at night, some are flexible. When you attend tutor training, you’ll be asked what days and times are best for you to meet with your student. This information helps the WALC staff make the best match.
When tutors take vacation or medical time off, their students do not meet with another tutor. If you know you will be out for several weeks it is a good idea to assign additional homework or a special project he or she can work on then discuss with you when you return. If you attend college you should decide if you can spare the time to work with an adult learner then select a day to meet that fits your schedules. Your school schedule may be different the next semester, if so discuss the change with your student and arrange a new meeting time acceptable to both of you. The key is communicating with the student and with the WALC office, when needed. As long as you continue to regularly meet with your student on whatever schedule the two of you agree upon WALC permits you to manage your time. When the WALC staff does not receive monthly calendars and regular updates from the volunteer tutors they will follow-up with the tutor to determine if the tutor and student are still meeting and what if any resources are needed.
Is volunteer work with WALC worth it?
This is a very enjoyable and fulfilling volunteer opportunity. Tutors observe their students’ growth in ways other than reading. Students improve in self-esteem, poise, verbal communication skills, family literacy and community involvement, all of which stem from increased reading skills. Some students have received job promotions based on their improved reading skills while others have become US Citizens after study with a WALC tutor. Most tutors reveal they have learned more and gained more from the experience than their students!
WALC sponsors two major fundraisers each year, the Adult Spelling Bee in November and the Literacy Book Fair each spring. The success of these events is based largely on volunteer involvement and tutors are encouraged but not required to participate.
Please contact the WALC office and speak with Alys or Sara for more information about becoming a WALC volunteer reading tutor and to register for the training dates. You must attend ALL training sessions. The WALC telephone number is 766-1954 and the email is .
11/15
From Laubach Way to Reading Teacher’s Manual 1
Foreward
No other reading program that I know is so carefully constructed as the Laubach Way to Reading series. Every major and minor step in this series is based on sound principles of learning and psychology. The reading system is like a completed jigsaw puzzle. Every letter, every word, every picture fits so well that one no longer sees the separate pieces, but rather the system as a whole picture.
While using the Laubach materials and methods in my teacher-training classes, I have wondered why there were no other comparable materials available. I observed that other programs were products of individuals or groups, and when such programs diminished in popularity, new programs were produced by new individuals or groups, each starting from scratch.
The secret of the success of the Laubach Way to Reading series, I concluded, is that is has been built upon 50 years’ experience in teaching reading to people in all sorts of conditions. Each revised edition of the series has been built upon the accumulated strengths of the previous editions. The methods, ideas, words, and pictures which worked were kept and refined. Building upon success and experience has made the materials more and more effective.
Our national reading problems, both in school and out of school, are deep and many. The present systems, programs, materials, and teachers seem to be waging a heroic but losing battle. As a remedial reading specialist, I have heard the pleas for help almost daily. I have examined most of the available materials and have found them useful, in the main, but somehow they don’t get the job done. I believe our hard-working teachers should have the Laubach series in their hands and the possibility of help from Laubach-trained tutors.
Reading experts may disagree on many things among themselves, but they all agree on the prime importance of the well-trained teacher or tutor. It is a genuine tribute to the Laubach leadership that it recognized this fact years ago. I can personally attest to the thorough training that tutors receive, both through Laubach-sponsored workshops and through clear, step-by-step teacher’s manuals. I take warm pride in being one of the long line of tutors stemming from the work of that great educator, Frank C. Laubach.
Laubach Literacy International has done an outstanding job in combining a great reading series with first-rate training and program organization. Whenever I am asked about help in reading for a teenager or an adult, without hesitation I recommend the Laubach Way to Reading taught by a Laubach-trained tutor.
Walter Pauk, Professor Emeritus
Director, Reading Research Center
Cornell University
From Laubach Way to Reading Teacher’s Manual 1
Preface
Sixty years of continuous experience lie behind the Laubach Way to Reading.
The experience started in 1930 in the Philippines when Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) originated a method of teaching adults to read and write in their own language. The method was tested and refined through the years as it was used to teach adults to read in many local languages.
In 1946, Streamlined English, the progenitor of this series, and its teacher’s manual were developed by Frank Laubach and a team which included the undersigned co-author, Elizabeth Kirk, and Robert Laubach.
The late Frank C. Laubach was the literacy pioneer who carried the slogan Each One Teach One into 100 nations. He founded Laubach Literacy International, which conducts literacy programs in the United States, Latin America, and India; provides grants to local literacy and development initiatives in Asia and Africa; and has given rise to a sister organization, Laubach Literacy of Canada. Laubach workers mobilize and train volunteer tutors, and organize community-based literacy programs. Through its New Readers Press division, Laubach Literacy International publishes a variety of literacy teaching and reading materials for adults with limited reading skills.
Elizabeth Mooney Kirk’s association with the Laubach programs began in 1945 when she worked with Frank Laubach preparing materials and teaching adults to read English in New York City adult night schools. She has since organized literacy projects and trained tutors to teach adults in Kenya, India, and the United States, and she taught in the public schools for 25 years.