References for Volunteer Tutors and Literacy Program Directors

Suggested Reading for Volunteer Tutors

The Reading Team: A Handbook for Volunteer Tutors K – 3
The America Reads Edition by Lesley Mandel Morrow and Barbara J. Walker.
This might be the best choice for volunteer tutors to begin with. The Reading Team is engagingly presented in a colorful, magazine-like format. Subjects include motivation, essential components of a tutoring lesson, and helpful tutoring strategies.

Tips for the Reading Team: Strategies for Tutors
Lesley Mandel Morrow and Barbara J. Walker, Editors.
An excellent follow-up to The Reading Team, described above, this book provides step-by-step instruction in building reading strategies. Based on articles from the International Reading Association’s highly respected journal, The Reading Teacher, useful activities are presented in an easy-to-follow format.

Help America Read : A Handbook for Volunteers
Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas.
Authors Fountas and Pinnell combine their years of expertise in an excellent resource for volunteer tutors. They provide detailed examples of effective reading lessons, along with background explanation for each activity. This valuable book complements, rather than repeats, the other references suggested in this section.

Book Buddies: Guidelines for Volunteer Tutors of Emergent and Early Readers
Francine R. Johnston, Marcia Invernizzi, and Connie Juel.
Perhaps the most comprehensive of the books listed in this section, Book Buddies might be most appropriate for seasoned volunteer tutors. Packed with good ideas, Book Buddies will enable tutors to assist even the most challenged students. Volunteer tutors and literacy program directors will appreciate this large collection of useful examples and reproducible forms.

The Volunteer Tutor’s Toolbox
Editor: Beth Ann Herrmann.
Tutors with a background in education, as well as teachers and reading specialists, may enjoy the cutting-edge methods of instruction presented in this publication from the International Reading Association. Most beginning tutors, however, may benefit more from the more elementary books described above.

Books on Implementing Volunteer Tutoring Programs

Training the Reading Team: A Guide for Supervisors of a Volunteer Tutoring Program
Barbara J. Walker, Ronald Scherry, and Lesley Mandel Morrow
Literacy program directors will surely want this book, if only for the more than fifty forms, handouts, and overhead transparency templates. An excellent supplement to the two companion volumes, described above.

Book Buddies: Guidelines for Volunteer Tutors of Emergent and Early Readers Francine R. Johnston, Marcia Invernizzi, and Connie Juel.
Directors of literacy programs will want to reproduce the useful "Forms for Tutors" provided in this comprehensive and up-to-date resource, and will find it a "good read."

A Coordinator’s Guide To Help America Read
Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas.
Program coordinators will value this reference from these two highly-respected authorities on the teaching of reading..

Web Pages About Implementing Literacy Programs

What Reading Research Says About Volunteer Tutoring
by Cathy Puett Miller, Independent Literacy Consultant

Read*Write*Now!
The American Initiative on Reading and Writing

READING PARTNERS: The Read*Write*Now! Partners Tutoring ProgramThis guide is directed by the Planning and Evaluation Service Department of the U.S. Department of Education.

It includes these sections:

  • General Strategies
  • Guidelines for Effective Tutoring
  • What to Do and How to Do It
  • Paired Reading: The Basics
  • Paired Reading: Some Finer Points
  • Working on Reading Skills

Day One…in the life of a program coordinator and
Identifying Local Resources for Your Literacy Program
From Linking Education and America Reads through National Service (LEARNS)

Read With Me: A Guide for Student Volunteers Starting Early Childhood Literacy Programs
A Compact for Reading