Volunteer Early Literacy Supports in Our Schools!
Our program is all about giving kids the reading support they need, right when they need it! We train our awesome volunteer mentors to follow a specific reading plan, tailored to each school’s curriculum. This way, every child gets the same great help, no matter who their mentor is.
Here’s how it works: Schools pick students who could use a little extra reading help, and these kids get to spend just 15 minutes a day with a mentor. Each mentor works with 8 students over a 2-hour period, and then a new mentor takes over the next day with the same group of kids. This daily dose of reading fun goes on for about 10-12 weeks. After that, we check in to see how much progress the students have made and if they’re ready to graduate from the program.
Early Literacy Mentor Volunteer!
This program is possible thanks to the volunteers who come in weekly to administer the program! Volunteers work 1-on-1 with multiple students each day working on the various letters.
No teaching background is necessary! For this program to work, each student needs to receive the same routine for each letter no matter the volunteer they are working with! For this, volunteers are trained on how to use a scripted program developed by our school systems. That means any volunteer could learn how to become a great Early Literacy Mentor!
The estimated time commitment is 2 hours a week during the school day.
Want to learn more about the Early Childhood Literacy Program or how to be an Early Literacy Mentor? Contact our office today at shavaun@unitedwaylakeshore.org or call (231) 332-4016.
About the Curriculum:
The Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge (EAK) routine is a 1-on-1 mentoring routine where volunteers work with kindergarten and 1st-grade students. This routine is 15-20 minutes long and works through:
- Letter Recognition & Identification: Children learn to recognize and identify individual letters.
- Letter-Sound Correspondence: Children associate letter names with their corresponding sounds.
- Letter Production: Children practice writing or forming the letters.
During this routine, volunteers only work on one letter in both the upper case and lower case form.
Our School Partners:
Special Thanks to Our Supporting Partners:
The Retired & Senior Volunteer Program Members have helped coordinate, provide feedback, and administer the program!
This program has funded support thanks to the Community Foundation for Muskegon County!
The Muskegon Area Intermediate School District has provided the expertise knowledge and overall program fundamentals to train our volunteers and equip them with the necessary skills to make this program possible!
This program started as a pilot after the Livability Lab in 2022. Thanks to a set group of dedicated volunteers and an advisory committee this program has grown over the last two years to work with over 100 students in our community.
