CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND

Welcome to the America Reads Challenge Program!

You have accepted a wonderful opportunity. Participating in the America Reads Challenge gives you the chance to help prevent adult illiteracy through tutoring school-aged children. Young people who do not learn to read become adults who cannot read. Too many adults in America are illiterate. It is estimated that 23 million American cannot read or write.

As a college student, you have already reaped the benefits of being able to read and write. Americans who cannot read or write cannot function as those who can. Illiterate adults are constantly unable to participate in everyday activities that literate adults take for granted. Illiterate adults cannot read directions on medicine bottles. They cannot follow a map or read street signs to locate a new place. They cannot read to their children or help them with their homework. They cannot read a menu in a restaurant. They cannot follow a recipe or write a check. Adults who can read take activities like these for granted.

Illiteracy will not go away on its own and there is no simple solution to the problem of illiteracy. President Bill Clinton announced the America Reads Challenge in an attempt to ensure that every American child can read well and independently by the third grade, thus eliminating adult illiteracy. You are the tutors that will make this dream come true.

You have been hired to be a reading tutor in a public school in Carbondale, Illinois. This program has taken the coordination of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC), the federal government, and the local schools. Ted Sanders, President of SIU, is one of the national co-chairs of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education and joins with some famous personalities on this committee. Other members include: National Parent Teacher Association President Joan Dykstra; Tipper Gore, wife of Vice-President Al Gore; Sports star, Bo Jackson; and U. S. Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley. Dr. Sanders is also a member of the America Reads Challenge, which is a subgroup of The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. All of these celebrities believe adult illiteracy is a national problem of enormous proportions and that the America Reads Challenge program is an important step toward solving this problem.

In this initial year of the America Reads Challenge program, children in grades one through four will be tutored in reading by SIUC students. Children learn best in a one-on-one environment and you will be working with them in this personal arrangement to help them become better readers. This task will present some great challenges to you, as a tutor, and to the student.

Reading is not really a subject or a product. It is a process. It is the how-to that determines a student's success in every other subject. Children who finish school unable to read or write will face difficult challenges in their adult lives. Former U.S. Senator Paul Simon, head of the Public Policy Institute at SIUC, writes in his book, Let's Put America Back to Work, of the problem of adult illiteracy. Simon (1987) states that the unemployment rate for individuals who cannot read or write is much higher than it is for those who can. Average earnings for illiterate adults, who do work, are substantially lower than for those who can read and write. The majority of individuals in prison are functionally illiterate. The director of personnel at General Motors estimates that at least 30% of its work force is illiterate.

So, how will you help solve this problem? You have already made a strong commitment to helping by participating in this program. At times, you may feel overwhelmed at the enormity of this task. But remember, your efforts are worthwhile. You will be making a difference, one child at a time.

PURPOSE OF THIS MANUAL

Information provided in this manual is intended to give tutors direction for the work you will be doing. This manual is only a start for the information you will need. It certainly is not everything that you will need to know. It provides background and reference material for you as an America Reads Challenge tutor in your important work of making a difference--one student at a time.

Your background experiences to be an America Reads Challenge tutor will naturally be different from those of your fellow tutors. Your own experiences, your familiarity with schools, your knowledge of the process of reading and reading methods will vary from other tutors. In order for all tutors to have equal opportunities to become knowledgeable about reading, basic information necessary for all tutors, has been included in this manual. Sometimes the material will simply serve as reminders of things you already know. Other material will be new information. The writer of this manual has attempted to avoid being too simplistic or presumptuous of your background. If you are unclear about something in the manual or have questions that are not addressed in this manual, please make inquiries at orientation training sessions and throughout the year. Keep in mind that as the year progresses, additional training about specific and different reading strategies will be provided.

I truly believe each of us can make a difference

in someone's life. We can change someone's

life forever. That's what life is all about. That's

the legacy we can leave behind.

--Tara Holland

Miss America 1997