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MIGHTYBOOK, INC.
America Reads Contact: Richard Eaves
10924 Grant Road #225
Houston, TX
E-mail: reaves@houston.rr.com
URL: http://www.mightybook.com
Telephone: 281-890-3538
Fax: 281-469-6466
Particiption: MightyBook, Inc., is a for-profit corporation whose mission is to promote literacy and help kids discover the power of reading on the Internet. MightyBook provides free read-aloud picture books on the Internet for kids ages 2-12. The web site also provides entertaining and educational sing-along songs, video songbooks about animals and student poetry and fiction publishing contests. All content is free of charge to kids, parents and schools at www.mightybook.com. The Web site is supporte solely by corporate sponsors, but no commmercial advertising is allowed. MightyBook has a strict privacy policy that prohibits collecting information about visitors to our Web site.
Tutoring: MightyBook.com will have more 200 read aloud picture books on its Web site by the end of the year 2000. All stories feature a story teller and flash animated word and picture changes that replicate pages of the book turning. Some of these books are children's classics, and others are original books by up-and-coming children's authors and illustrators. Kids can access these books free of charge at any time, whether in the classroom, at home, in the library, or while visiting grandparents or other relatives.
Resources: MightyBook provides excellent reading resources that are totally free of charge. Kids can visit MightyBook without being bombarded by commercial messages that try to entice them to buy something. MightyBook.com has no commercial advertising. And MightyBook does not collect any information about kids, so parents and teachers do not have to have to worry about children's privacy. Furthermore, we only allow links to Web sites who maintain equally stringent privacy and non-commercial policies.
Research: All books, songs, videos, word games and puzzles are available to everyone over the Internet at no charge.
Relations: MightyBook will launch a major publicity effort in August to coincide with student book writing and illustration contests. Additionally, we have initiated efforts to take our story to television talk shows that are receptive to reading initiatives for children, namely Oprah and the Rosie O'Donnell Show.
PHI THETA KAPPA HONOR SOCIETY, Montgomery College, Conroe, Texas
America Reads Contact: Grace Adam
3200 College Park Drive
Conroe, TX 77384
E-mail:
grace@petrasco.com
URL: http://wwwmc.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/other/ptk/index.html
Telephone:
Fax: none
Particiption: Phi Theta Kappa is a two year community college honor society. We have five active student literacy volunteers. We have linked up with a church group in a community north of our college.
Tutoring: We have a training program. This is lead by Reading and Writing Department of the Extended Learning Center on campus. It is offered on an "as needed basis" and is open to all who are interested.The children we tutor are ages 4-14yrs. We are based in a community hall/church within a large apartment complex.
Resources: We rely on donations of books, supplies, money, furniture etc. We have no budget. We are currently planning to solicit donations from local businesses.
Research: We have not evaluated our program. We recognize this as a priority. We plan to develop a comprehensive educational community assessment, develop interventions, set goals with the community and evaluate the program.
Relations: Yes, we have recently given an interview to the college PR representative. This will result in a press release in the near future. In addition, we have received book donations from Literacy Volunteers of America and the local Rotary Club.
Other Comments: Please send any advice, info on networking with groups, evaluation tools/techniques.
SAN JACINTO GIRL SCOUTS
America Reads Contact: Carolyn Johnson
3110 Southwest Freeway
Houston, TX 77098
E-mail:
dejohn@neosoft.com
Telephone: 713-523-7315 ext. 267 Fax: 713-520-1036
Participation: San Jacinto Girl Scouts, a chartered council of GSUSA, serves 21 counties in East Texas. San Jacinto is the largest girl membership council in the US with a girl membership of 46,500. The adult volunteer membership is over 13,000. San Jacinto was one of two Girl Scout councils in the US to first pilot the USDE Read*Write*Now! program beginning in the fall of 1995. SJGS formed a collaboration with 21 other local community and educational agencies to form a coalition.
Tutoring: "Houston Read To Lead" continues to promote literacy related activities in the greater Houston area serving K-12 and family literacy initiatives. Agencies currently involved are San Jacinto Girl Scouts, Houston Read Commission, Houston Public Library, Interfaith Ministries, Houston Parks and Recreation, Houston ISD, ServeHouston-Americorp, Mayor's Office City of Houston, University of St. Thomas, etc. Learning partners have included students, parents, corporate volunteers, Girl Scouts, members of a variety of faith institutions, work-study students, etc. Trainings are offered on a regular basis at various agencies throughout the Houston area.
Resources: In addition to the Read*Write*Now! materials, additional training has been developed to meet specific needs. Staff of participating agencies are involved in coordinating the literacy activites of their respecitve agencies and meeting monthly to coordinate the overall activites of "Houston Reads To Lead". A coordinator of the efforts of the coaltion has been hired to conduct fund raising efforts and the work of the coalition.
Research: Houston serves as a resources for other cities wishing to become a pilot city. Materials are avialable. Contact Lisa Hernandez at 713-845-2339, coordinator of Houston Read to Lead. Tracking data and evaluation procedures are available.
Relations: Continual publicity efforts are undertaken and have been successful on TV, radio and the print medium. Presentations have been made at the local, regional and national level. The most recent was in February at a Girl Scout USA regional worksop held in Houston. We have built a literacy coalition in Houston, hired a coordinator and an oversight committee meets monthly to coordniate the literacy efforts in the city.
Participated in February in "Kids Love a Mystery Week" working in conjunction with Joan Lowery Nixon, president of the Mystery Wirters of America and the March 2 Read Across America program to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday. Received local TV coverage for Read Across America. Currently working on a city-wide promotional campaign for literacy.
VICTORY TUTORIAL PROGRAM, AISD OFFICE OF COMMUNITY EDUCATION
America Reads Contact: Carolyn Shelley
1111 W. 6th Street, Suite D-150
Austin, TX
E-mail:
victory.program@rocketmail.com
Internet Address:
http://www.austin.isd.tenet.edu/community/victory/menu.html
Telephone: (512) 499-7317 Fax: (512) 499-7320
Participation: During the 1996-1997 program year, 568 tutors volunteered for the VICTORY Program helping 968 students. Typically more than 60% of these students are in elementary school and 75% are low income. Students generally come to the library once a week for an hour and work with their tutor on an individual basis. Tutoring takes place in the afternoon and early evening, Monday-Thursday.
The program has a strong relationship with the University of Texas Volunteer Center, and approximately half of our tutors are college students. Some of these students are fulfilling volunteer requirements for education, social work or pharmacy classes. In addition to our traditional volunteers, VICTORY was able to take advantage of the federal work-study reading tutor waiver for the first time in the 1997-1998 school year. Five FWS tutors spend two days a week at a library site and two days a week tutoring at a Community Education after-school program site. VICTORY also has volunteers from the local Austin Community College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa who are helping us meet the America Reads Challenge.
Tutoring: There is a full-time coordinator at each library site who recruits students and volunteers, interviews and trains new tutors, serves as a liaison with the school and classroom teacher, and provides on-site support and supervision. The Austin Independent School District Department of Curriculum has also provided some additional training for our volunteers.
Resources: The VICTORY Tutorial Program matches volunteer tutors with students in grades 1-12 at eight branches of the Austin Public Library. The program was founded by the library with a federal VISTA grant in 1992. Today, the program is funded by the City of Austin and directed by the Austin Independent School District Office of Community Education.
Research: Volunteer hours and student visits are recorded at each site and entered into a central database on a monthly basis. Tutors fill out weekly notes on their students to track progress. We send questionnaires and evaluation forms to teachers to get anecdotal feedback on student performance. The school district provides a demographic profile of the students who participate in the VICTORY Program. Since we joined the President's Coalition for the America Reads Challenge, we have started to use a simple sight word recognition assessment at the beginning and end of the semester for our elementary students. Finally, with the help of the school district we look at how our students perform on the reading and math TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills)from one year to the next compared with the performance of a matched sample (students with similar characteristics). All of this information is included in an annual program evaluation.
Relations: Because we depend on volunteers to provide tutoring, we do outreach on an on-going basis. We sent out a press release when we joined the President's Coalition for the America Reads Challenge, and had a nice article about our summer reading buddies program in the local paper. The VICTORY Tutorial Program is a partnership between the Austin Independent School District Office of Community Education and the City of Austin - Austin Public Library. We receive strong support from both organizations.
WACO READS
America Reads Contact:Patricia Harrison
3425 Hillcrest Drive
Waco, TX
E-mail:
wacoreads@texnet.net
Internet Address: http://www.mcyc.org
Telephone:(254) 753-6002 x211 Fax:(254) 753-4415
Particiption: Waco READS is a literacy program who's mission is to motivate and enable children to read so that each child can reach his or her highest potential. To train minds above all else and recognize that all children are unique and different individuals. This program is sponsored in part by a local foundation and Communities In Schools. Our partnerships include local colleges and universities, businesses, churches, private-sector, teen volunteer center, the local public broadcasting station (KWBU), and the local chapter of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program.
Tutoring: Our program serves elementary students (K-5th)in the Waco Independent School District. Currently, this volunteer/work-study program has 500 participating. WISD has 19 elementary schools within its district to which we serve. This program provides initial training on how to build a winning relationship with a child. Quarterly workshops are given by our local Regional Service Center (Reading Specialist) who guides the tutors/work-study students in the areas of reading instruction (decoding, comprehension..etc). These workshops are open to the staff of the schools. Through our partnership with the local broadcasting station who is a First Book recipient we sponsor Parent Workshops for those who have a student in K-3rd grades. In these workshops parents are given tips and techniques for being their child's first teacher. Each child who is represented by a parent at one of these workshops receive 10 free "new" books (Scholastic / Mundo) to take home.
Resources: Our tutoring (literacy) efforts take place during the day in the school. At each school the district has a volunteer site coordinator that oversees the matching process. We work on a limited budget of $50,000 per year.
Research: The evaluation process of this program is based on the tutor, teacher and student. Evaluation forms are requested and information is placed into a data collection system giving the program's overall outcomes.
Relations: Publicity efforts include PSA's, Billboards, Paper Media. This program has public speakers who volunteer their time to go into the community to speak to targeted groups.
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