Reading Buddies

The TC Reading Buddy program is a Teachers College Community Engagement (TCCE) school improvement project, designed to support the development and improvement of reading skills of the lowest performing students in 1st & 3rd grades.  The program uses a balanced approach, providing systematic daily instruction in phonics, while also addressing the development of vocabulary and comprehension through a whole language approach, “reading to” and “reading with” a child for 25 minutes per day in a one-to-one setting.   The goal of the program is to provide struggling readers in grades 1 and 3 with the skills necessary for the development of automaticity in reading, so that comprehension is not hindered by the student’s inability to decode or decipher the printed symbols/words.  

The TC Reading Buddy program takes a holistic systems thinking approach to school improvement and is designed as a “Complementary Embedded Education Program” (CEEP), to be delivered in-school during the school-day.  Systemic and contextual issues (within schools) that interfere with students’ opportunities to learn are examined and addressed with the relevant classroom teacher, administrator and school or school district leader as deemed appropriate.  Regular dialogue helps to uncover patterns of behavior within schools that interfere and undermine student learning.  Such dialogue is critical to the success of the Reading Buddy program and requires a willingness and openness for collaboration and cooperation between the Reading Buddies, classroom teachers and administrators.

The TC Reading Buddy program also provides opportunity for informal professional development for teachers and administrators, and promotes the discipline of team learning within school and among participants in the program.   TC students serving as Buddies within a school are expected to learn and function as a team with their classroom teachers/school partners.   It is further expected that the TC Buddies will in turn impact the learning of the larger organizational systems in which they work, both within the College and in their assigned classrooms and schools, impacting the school system, the family and the communities in which they serve as tutors.

The TC Reading Buddy program focuses on the development of :

1. an appropriate CONTEXT that is supportive of the learner and learning, and that provides Positive Proximal Processes (PPP) for students as learners.
2.  the student’s CONFIDENCE in his/her ability to learn,  and on  providing the supports and adequate Time to Mastery (TTM) for the learner.
3. vocabulary and reading skills through rich and challenging instructional CONTENT

Update!

RB 2006 Training Program

RB 2008 Training Program

Articles:

• In the Reading Zone
• A Campaign for Equity: In Our Back Yard
• CS200 QUOTES:  Spring 2006
• PS123 QUOTES:  Spring 2006
• PS125 QUOTES:  Spring 2006
• PS154 QUOTES:  Spring 2006

Other TC Projects :

• The TC Reading and Writing Project
• The National Academy for Excellent Teaching
• Say Yes to Education