This video is designed to help train national service members and community volunteers working with children as homework coaches. The video provides best practices for homework help program design and implementation by examining an AmeriCorps after-school program in New York City, Groundwork for Youth. Viewers gain insight into ways to train and support adults working with children, how to establish programmatic structure and routines, and useful strategies for helping children become independent and organized in completing their homework.

 

 

Understand the guiding principles of volunteer recruitment, learn how to identify a target audience for your recruitment efforts, become familiar with various recruitment strategies, and gain ideas for recruiting more male volunteers.

 

This 22-minute video is designed to help train volunteers working with children who struggle to read fluently. The video introduces you to Emily, a second-grader, whose lack of fluency interferes with her reading comprehension, and includes a discussion guide with suggestions and tips for using the video to train tutors. The guide elaborates on the issues Emily has with fluency and comprehension and the multiple ways the tutor works to help her overcome these challenges.

 

Shows the strategies that Lisa, the teacher, uses to help Crystal, a beginning reader, work on developing her reading skills. Viewers can analyze both Crystal's strengths and weaknesses and think about appropriate next steps.

 

Rosa, the teacher, reads, plays an initial consonant game, and writes with seven-year-old Melany. Viewers can observe teaching strategies that effectively support linguistically and culturally diverse children.

 

The student, Blayn, is having a reading comprehension conference with his teacher, Yolene. Viewers can think about how the conversation reflects on Blayn's understanding of the book, as well as ways to extend his thinking. Includes Blayn playing a reading comprehension game and writing about the book he reads.

 

This one-hour session is presented by Tina Christensen, program director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Rochester (NY), one of the nations leading peer mentoring programs. Tinas peer mentoring model has produced a number of compelling positive outcomes for youth. She shares her advice on how to effectively structure program services, and provides a number of training materials and handouts programs can use.

 

As the school year draws to a close, many national service volunteers are also completing their tutoring and mentoring sessions with students. The end of the year is often a difficult time for children — saying goodbye and separating from classmates, teachers, mentors and tutors can be stressful. This webinar talks about how to deal with separation behaviors, tips for reviewing work and accomplishments, and examples of appropriate gifts.