Reading Partners

Reading partners are work-study students or volunteers who have taken on the America Reads Challenge. Reading partners are not tutors, they are role models who inspire young children to read better, by sharing the joy and power of reading. Reading partners work one-on-one or with small groups of children. Typically the children's ages range from preschool to third grade.

A Reading Partner:

• Enjoys working with children
• Enjoys reading
• Respects confidentially
• Is dependable and responsible
• Respects placement site rules
• Attends mandatory trainings and meetings
• Agrees to a criminal background check (if required)

Mandatory Training

Before starting as a reading partner, you must participate in a four-hour training which is offered in the fall and spring semester. Literacy experts are brought in to provide strategies for reading, focusing on:

• Strategies for reading to children
• Strategies for reading with children
• Language play
• Planning successful reading session

What Reading Partners Do:

• Reading partners develop sustained, one-on-one relationships with children. This sustained relationship building reflects current research on factors that promote resiliency.
• Read to the child: reading familiar and unfamiliar books and talking about the books.
• Read with the child: supporting reading of books that are "just right" for the child.
• Language play: hands-on activities to build phonemic awareness, including writing or making books.

What Reading Partners DO NOT Do:

• Make photocopies
• Provide recess or lunch duty
• Prepare lesson plans for the teacher
• Supervise the entire classroom

Placement Sites

Why should I participate?

America Reads is a great opportunity for you to be part of a national effort to improve literacy and contribute to your local community.

If you love working with kids this is a great way to share your love for reading with them. For those interested in teaching, this is another way to get exposed to the classroom.