However, the program can accommodate small groups and circles in appropriate settings where they are a good match for the children. Training will emphasize tutorials, but will include reading circles and other small group approaches. Tutors are recruited first, from the existing population of volunteers. Hundreds of parents already are volunteering in our schools. Most of these are in the school of their choice, and have personal commitments to those schools.
Many schools have a solid neighborhood base from which to draw volunteers.
Secondly, this project is a collaboration of partners listed above who have committed to recruiting well over 300 from their constituencies. The project's volunteer and training coordinators will work directly with them, and will work through the schools as well as through central administration. An October 1998 survey of principals will help identify schools' needs, ways in which reading plans fit with the project, level of interest, current volunteer pool, and suggestions for how tutoring can best work within the school framework, and instructional approach. Tutoring will take place during and after school, at Head Start, and, as the project progresses, at home, at neighborhood Recreation Centers, in public housing developments, in churches, and other sites where the children are, and where appropriate and safe supervision is ensured. The proposed training model provides for seven hours of training, half in preparation for the tutors' beginning to work with children and the balance provided while tutoring is ongoing.