Become a literacy program volunteer for Durham Public Schools

On Saturday, December 3^rd I attended the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (IMA):  Leading in Literacy in the Village where the training facilitator was Gloria Prout of eduConsulting Firm.  Volunteers will help students in kindergarten, first, second or third grade to improve their literacy skills.  During the training it was stated that 48% of incoming kindergarteners do not have the basic pre-literacy skills such as naming some letters of the alphabet (letter recognition), name recognition and so forth.  Therefore, these children enter the doors behind their age peers where volunteer tutors are so important to close this achievement gap in the early grades to foster their success into adulthood.

You can work with an individual students as a one-on-one Literacy Tutor or as a small group literacy volunteer.  You will read books with students, play literacy games like sight-word bingo, help students’ journal about what they are reading.  All literacy volunteers:

1.       Support students’ reading comprehension, letter/word recognition and overall confidence in reading ability, and

2.       Commit to volunteering one hour a day, one to two days per week for one school year.  Days and times are generally flexible but each school has identified some blocks of time that would allow for the greatest impact and ensure students are receiving a double-dose in one-on-one or small group literacy.

Here are some examples that were shared by Ms. Prout to assist with the assigned student(s) to assist them on the path of being at or above grade level in reading/literacy.

Ready to become a volunteer literacy tutor these are the steps:

1.        Go online and complete a background check (ww.dpsnc.net / go to Volunteering/register to volunteer/ complete the application, submit) the approval should take 10-15 work days.

2.       Attend a 90-120 minute training session (The training will prepare you to become a volunteer at your participating site).

3.       Contact your school volunteer – (Contacts will be shared at the training).

4.       Questions about the training or general, please contact Carol White (919) 560-2331

5.       Begin tutoring!