What Are Book Buddies?

 

Today's Snack: Let's eat two things that are good apart, but GREAT together: a 6-oz. carton of yogurt with about ¼ C. of granola cereal. Mmmm! Those are two food buddies that should visit your tummy together more often! Wash them down with not one, but two, glasses of cold water.

 

--------------------

 

Today's Supplies:

See this article on a prominent tutor-student program in North Carolina:

http://www.ccs.k12.va.us/programs/book_buddies.html

 

Purchase the book that describes the

North Carolina program's system, lesson plans, training, etc.:

Book Buddies: Guidelines for Volunteer Tutors

of Emergent and Early Readers by Francine R. Johnston et. al.

 

See this article on ideas for student-to-student Book Buddies programs: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=14

 

Here's another one:

http://www.proteacher.org/c/395_Book_Buddies.html

 

Here are some student-to-student Book Buddies activities:

http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/all-year/book-buddies/

 

 

 

           

Book Buddies is a great way to take advantage of "the power of two" to build reading skills and enjoyment for students of all ages.

 

We're all human, and the truth is, we enjoy being with a special friend, mentor, partner, or buddy from time to time. Two together really are better than one alone!

 

A Book Buddies program should be less formal than a tutoring relationship between a student and an adult. Book Buddies should be more like partners - comrades - reading "mates" or friends, even if their ages and educational levels are vastly different.

 

Book Buddies can be started up with little or no organization or training, because it is the friendship that develops between the buddies that creates the learning environment. Expenses are zero, since existing school library books and other reading materials are utilized, and students or volunteers aren't paid.

 

On the other hand, there are models for highly organized, systematic and research-based Book Buddies programs that are more like tutoring programs. They have volunteer coordinators and trainers, specified materials, established lesson plans, sometimes paid tutors, and other structural features, and they can cost a little money . . . but the payoff in increased reading ability and enjoyment is priceless, proponents say.

 

However it takes shape, a Book Buddies program is the epitome of "complementary education" - learning that takes place outside of the planned-out curriculum or in the more formal setting of the classroom's group learning atmosphere.

 

Instead of the typical reading experience on chairs or behind desks in a classroom, Book Buddies can meet outside on a grassy hill, in the school library, on window seats or bean bags at an after-school program . . . just about anywhere. Most  Book Buddies programs require little or no expenses, curriculum, materials or planning, other than, of course, books.

 

You can match up an older student with a younger student for a joint read-aloud once a week for 15 minutes. You can match up a willing literacy volunteer whose wish is to help teach a child to read, with a student who really needs outside help, to meet for a half-hour twice a week. You can match up peer students within the same classroom or grade level, or mix up the age groups.

 

You can bring in members of a civic or corporate group to your after-school to read with kids once a week at your after-school program. You can be as organized as having a set "lesson plan" for each meeting and a careful assessment and evaluation process, or just instruct the Book Buddies that they are to simply enjoy some time together reading each session, and leave it up to them WHAT to read.

 

The key is that the Book Buddies are together, giving each other instant feedback and attention, in a timeless experience of "two heads are better than one" that sets the stage better than anything else for instilling reading as a pleasant and fulfilling - not to mention crucial - life activity.