MRC Tutor Resource Guide

Welcome

Welcome Minnesota Reading Corps Members. In efforts of making Minnesota Reading Corps information more accessible to you, Your Family Literacy Members have created a Resource Guide. Our hope is that this guide will allow you to access forms, articles, online resources and more quickly and effectively. This information is additional to the Literacy Handbook which has the most pertinent information. Please refer to the Literacy Handbook as a first source. Prior to asking the Minnesota Reading Corps staff questions, especially on information on this site, refer to the Literacy Handbook.

In this Wikibook you will find links to Minnesota Reading Corps Sites, Forms, Letters, Websites that are helpful, and research related to Literacy. We hope you take advantage of this incredible resource. You are also welcome to contribute to it.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. General Minnesota Reading Corps Information
   1. Minnesota Reading Corps Websites
   2. Member Manuals
   3. Health Insurance Information
   4. Oncorps
   5. Media Resources
   6. Living on a budget
      1. Tips for Living on a Living Allowance
      2. Food Stamps
      3. College Discounts
   7. Loan Forbearance and Education Award
   8. Professional Training Opportunities
      1. Metro Training Calender
      2. Professional Learning Groups
      3. External Training Opportunities
2. General Forms and Pre-K-3 Materials
   1. Civic Engagement
   2. Forms
   3. Introduction Letters
   4. Website Resources
3. Pre-K Specific Resources
   1. Pre-K Training Modules
4. K-3 Specific Resources
   1. Training Modules
5. Research on Literacy Related Topics

General Minnesota Reading Corps Materials

Member Manuals

Pre-K Member Manual

K-3 Member Manual

Minnesota Reading Corps Website

Minnesota Reading Corps Website

Minnesota Reading Corps Blog

Tips Navigating MRC Website

Minnesota Reading Corps Store

Health Insurance Information

http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/group-resource/health-insurance-information

http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/group-training-module/health-insurance-tutorial

OnCorps

Hours Planning Calender

Oncorps

Timesheet Tutorial

Media Resources

Open House? Event where Reading Corps Information would be beneficial?

Check out the materials Minnesota Reading Corps have provided:

Reading Corps Informational Materials

Living on a Budget

Tips for Living on a Living Allowance

Excellent Resource! http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/group-resource/tips-for-living-on-living-allowance

Food Stamps

We've included some information on Food stamps and food credits that other MRC members have found helpful http://www.americorps.gov/pdf/07_0604_OGC_foodstamps.

"Fare for All Express provides food packages at 40-50% off of the retail price. There are no income restrictions and there are locations throughout the Twin Cities metro area." -MRC STAFF. For more information, the website is www.fareforall.org

College Discounts

Augsburg College Tuition Discount:

"Students enrolling in either the Weekend College program or one of Augsburg’s graduate programs who have volunteered with AmeriCorps and have served at least half-time for one year may receive a 25 percent tuition credit for one course each term for the duration of study." http://www.augsburg.edu/enroll/documents/AmericorpsDiscount.pdf

Loan Forbearance and Education Award

Loan Forbearance Information

Education Award Resource

Education Award Tutorial

W-5 Form

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw5.pdf.

Professional Training Opportunities

For Professional Development an Excellent Opportunity to gain more hours and have a deeper understanding of education is by taking professional development seminars. Provided here are some recommended websites that provide external professional development. Minnesota Reading Corps does not pay for external professional development opportunities, however they do count towards hours. TO add them, log into Oncorps and put them in under 'Training'.

Metro Training Calender

http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/metro-training

2010 - 2011 Certificate of Attendance

Professional Learning Groups

http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/group-announcement/professional-learning-groups-begin

External Training Opportunities

Your Internal Coach has the authority to approve the training opportunity. The information about how to count these hours are found on pages 43-46 of your Literacy Handbook. 10% of your total hours for training outside MRC provided training can be External Training Opportunities. Therefore, as a full time member, you can earn up to 170 hours with external training, as a part time member, you can earn up to 90 hours.

Resources for Child Caring: http://www.resourcesforchildcaring.org/index.cfm - You can either click on the training calendar or For Child Care Providers and professional development opportunities.

MNAEYC-MNSACA: http://www.mnaeyc-mnsaca.org/ - Professional Development

Northeast Metro 916: http://www.nemetro.k12.mn.us/202420617111923357/site/default.asp?2024Nav=%7C&NodeID=266 - Great resource for the classes to get the hours in for the required areas in teacher re licensing.

Free Webinars-http://www.edutopia.org/webinar 1) Talk to your Internal Coach and see if the proposed topic could be beneficial for your professional development. If your coach approves, 2) Register for and attend the webinar. 3) On your timesheet, the hour would be marked under "Training." More information about External Trainings can be found in your member handbook.

Research on Literacy Related Topics

Center on the Developing Child: Harvard University

Article about Social Emotional Development

Article about Repeated Read Aloud

This is a summary of an article called The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3 by Hart and Risley. It gives incredible insite as to why children from lower SES families are less likely to be successful students, and how we can help change this current trend as an org focused on literacy.

Look here for a summary of research from many different sources outlining the effects books have on children, the achievement gap, and possible solutions.

A 2010 report on the impact access to printed material has on children's school success.

Volume reading and it's affects on reading fluency

A poll by the Pearson Foundation finds that the majority of Americans are unaware of the realities that impoverished families face, and the obstacles that these families' lack of access to books creates for children.

Tracking the unique effects of print exposure in children: Associations with vocabulary, general knowledge, and spelling.

The amount of reading children do really matters in developing their skills as readers. Anderson’s 1988 study showed that time spent reading books was the best predictor of a child’s growth as a reader from the second to the fifth grade. This finding was confirmed by Cunningham and Stanovich a decade later using a somewhat different methodology.

Here are some summaries of some of the research that led to the recomendation that students read an hour a night:

1. Students who read 65 minutes a day will be reading 4,356 words each year while some of our most proficient students read upwards of more than 12 million words a year. Students who read ~15 minutes a day will read 1,146,000 words each year. Our poorest readers only read a little over 100,000 words each year.

2. Anderson, R. C.,Wilson, P.T.,& Fielding, L.G. (1988). Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 285-303.

3. Students who have gaps in their vocabulary or background knowledge due to lower socio-economic status or reduced parent interaction have to make up for lost time in order to be on par with average readers.

4. Follow the path: reluctant reader = low performing student = 100,000 annual word reader. Behind one year? Between 1 and 4 million words are needed to make up that single lost year. That equates to 15 min per night plus 15 more to make up for the one year they are behind, but that 30 minutes a night does not give them a competitive edge with the higher performing students, which means that future academic opportunities will not be available to them. Double the time and they still are not going to be competitive with top students, but they will begin truly closing the gap in ways that ensures that the gap does not again.

5. 100,000 words a year? x 10 years of education = 1,000,000. 4,000,000 words a year x 10 years of education = 40,000,000. Reading volume is highly correlated with school success.

6. Allington (1994) and Stanovich (1986) emphasized that the home environment played a large part in the amount of reading practice done by children. Krashen asserted that access to books and time to read could bridge the gap between different types of readers.

7. Allington, R.L. (1977). If they don’t read much, how they ever gonna get good? Journal of Reading, 21, 57-61.

8. We have found that even when performance is statistically equated for reading comprehension and general ability, reading volume is still a very powerful predictor of vocabulary and knowledge differences. Thus, we believe that reading volume is not simply an indirect indicator of ability; it is actually a potentially separable, independent source of cognitive differences.

9. Those who read well are likely to read more, thus setting an upward spiral into motion. Second, we should provide all children, regardless of their achievement levels, with as many reading experiences as possible. Indeed, this becomes doubly imperative for precisely those children whose verbal abilities are most in need of bolstering, for it is the very act of reading that can build those capacities.An encouraging message for teachers of low-achieving students is implicit here.We often despair of changing our students’ abilities, but there is at least one partially malleable habit that will itself develop abilities—reading!

Parent Resources

Tips for Parents to Engage their Children in Reading. MRC members may be able to use these tips with their students as well

When Kids Hate To Read

Reading Tips from Kids

Encouraging Your Child to Read

How Can I Improve My Child's Reading: This advice for parents details what they can do to help preschoolers become readers, and help school-age children improve their reading skills.

Tips For Encouraging Kids to Read: These tips are based on information given by teachers and parents and then summarized into seven helpful tips

General Forms and PreK-3 Grade Resources

Civic Engagement

How to Submit Civic Engagement

Forms

Book Report Form

Leave of Absence Form

Meal Reimbursement Form

Mileage Reimbursement Form

Parking Reimbursement Form

Group Recording Form

Individual Progress Monitoring Form

Intervention & Integrity Check List

Literacy Home Visit Form

Literacy Rich Daily Schedule

Printable Monthly Calenders

Repeated Read Aloud-Integrity Checklist & Lesson Plan

Standard Assessment Instructions

Student Progress Graph

Introduction Letters

K-3 Family Introduction Letter

Somali Introduction Letter to Parents

Spanish Introduction Letter to Parents

Hmong Introduction Letter to Parents

Benchmarking How-to

Instructions for Reporting Benchmark Data

Website Resources

http://www.readingrockets.org – An excellent place for literacy calendars, tips for reading for families, Packets to send home with families and more.

http://www.rif.org/- Reading is Fundamental provides several resources from Printable Parent Guides, Read Along Stories for Kids, Literacy Games and More.

http://nieer.org/ - National Institute for Early Education Research website

http://www.nea.org/grants/13005.htm - National Education Association website. This page has a step-by-step how-to on creating a reading event in your classroom or school

http://www.nea.org/grants/13026.htm - National Education Association website page offering parent resources in eleven languages from the Reading Rocket website.

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ - International Digital Children's Library has thousands of online children's books in 54 different languages.

Pre-K Specific Resources

PreK Family Introduction Letter

Zaner-Bloser Auditory Script

What Works: An Introductory Teacher Guide for Early Language & Literacy Instruction

Transitions

The Multilingual Classroom: Joys, Challenges, and Techniques

Resource & Activities to Support Tier 1 Instruction

Phonics Songs from IGDI training

Literacy Challenge Powerpoint

PreK Training Modules

Partner Reading Error Correction

Transition Song: Beginning sounds are fun to rhyme

Transition Song: Letters on the Bus

Transition Song: Letters, Letters, Letters Have Names

Transition Song: We are going to rhyme with our namesTransition Song: What is It?

K-3 Specific Resources

Introducing Yourself to Students

Benchmarking Score Sheets & Student Demographic Info Template

Tutor Log Tutoring Schedule Template

Word Blending Lists

Student Incentive Form, Award Certificate

Standard Assessment Instructions

Repeated Reading Chart

Letter to Teachers

Exit Letter for Families

K-3 Training Modules

Repeated Reading With Comprehension Strategy Practice

Phoneme Segmenting-Single

Phoneme Blending-Single

Module Pencil-Tap

Newscaster

Letter Sound Correspondence

Duet Reading

Blending Words-Single

Assessment-Nonsense PE-1

Assessment Nonsense PE-2

Assessment Nonsense PE-3

Assessment LSF Practice Example 1

Assessment LSF Practice Example 2

Assessment LSF Practice Example 3

Yearly Planned Activities

Autumn

Read for the Record

Read for the Record

Resources and Ideas for Creating your own Activities and Events

Great Children's Books and Authors: Have a local author come to your school to read a book and answer questions about being an author. Use that same book in the classroom, find vocabulary words from it, and create art projects associated with the book.