Education department launches Book Buddies program

Starting this spring, a new program, called Book Buddies, in the Department of Education will send juniors in the minor into Maybeury Elementary School to tutor second graders.

Designed to help kids with reading skills on an individual level, the program will go into schools with limited resources.  Book Buddies was started by faculty at the University of Virginia as a volunteer and tutoring program that was more intensive than others; volunteers designed lesson plans for individual children based on their needs.

Richmond education professor Susie Leahy was advised by one of the Book Buddies founders as a graduate student at UVA, so she was familiar with the way the program worked. Last year when department chair Patricia Stohr-Hunt visited another university implementing the Book Buddies program, she approached Leahy about starting the program at Richmond.

“I’ve seen friends and colleagues implement this program in their schools and I knew there was a need in our area for this kind of help,” Leahy said.

Stohr-Hunt and Leahy worked together to make Book Buddies a part of the education minor’s curriculum during students’ junior year. They will work with second graders at Maybeury Elementary School because, in this particular school, second grade happens to be where many kids are reading below grade level. Though the weakest readers usually get special help in the classroom, there are many others who slip through the cracks.

“There’s such a lack of teachers out there and most classrooms only have one reading specialist,” Leahy added. “It’s impossible for these teachers to work with these students one-on-one.”

In the spring, on Mondays and Wednesdays, every junior will go to Maybeury to work with two students for 45 minutes each. This way, they can assess each child’s reading level. The program stresses individualized lesson plans, Leahy explains, which is what sets it apart from a lot of other volunteer programs. Richmond students will work in conjunction with what the classroom teachers are already doing. Every Friday, they’ll meet with Leahy, who will help them design lesson plans for the next week.

Along with an emphasis on phonics and spelling, poetry and short fiction will help the students with fluency, while new stories each week will help kids conquer their fear of reading.

“Just the extra attention for some of these kids will be such a positive influence,” Leahy said. “The individual tutoring will encourage them to keep trying.”

And the kids aren’t the only ones who will benefit from Book Buddies. The teaching skills that Richmond education minors gain through this experience goes beyond anything they would learn in a typical classroom observation. Besides being a service for the community, Leahy says it’s an interesting and beneficial way for students to see first-hand how kids learn.   

“The teachers at Maybeury are very excited for our students to come in and help,” Leahy said. “I think the real merit of this program is that it benefits everyone involved.”

Posted November 1, 2007