Tutor

INTRODUCTION

THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN FOR ALL THOSE who are willing to expand their efforts to help adults who want to become better readers and writers.

Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. (LVA) grew out of a concern for the millions of people in the United States whose reading and writing skills are so inadequate that their limited literacy is a problem in their everyday lives. Some did not profit from their school experiences. Some never had opportunities to attend school regularly. Others find their reading and writing skills insufficient for the demands of this changing world. Whatever the source of their problems, millions of people need your help learning to read and write.

LVA offers training in tutoring basic literacy. The training is a professionally designed and field-tested workshop for the professional and non-professional reading and writing tutor. This text is designed to provide you with:

• A theoretical and attitudinal base from which to tutor.
• Demonstrations and discussions of needed skills and approaches for tutoring.
• Opportunities to practice these skills, which will be expanded during the training.

Interwoven throughout the text and the training are five underlying themes that you will be putting into practice as you tutor:

1. A respect for students as individuals.
2. A view of tutors and students both learning and teaching.
3. A sensitivity to adults' needs for immediate relevance.
4. A view of tutoring and learning as collaborative activities.
5. An integration of the language components.

In this text you will find professionally-accepted approaches and techniques with step-by-step instructions for tutoring basic literacy on a one-to-one basis or in a small group setting. We general use the terms tutors and students in the plural because we are talking to all tutors about all students – whether the tutoring setting is one-to-one or in small groups.

If you have worked with LVA materials or if you have participated in LVA training, some of what you are about to read will be familiar. However, you will also find new ideas that build on and reflect an extension of the philosophy from which LVA materials and training have been developed since 1962.

This book reflects more than three decades of experience, both volunteer and professional, with LVA programs. Techniques in teaching reading and writing have been adapted for the use of non-professional as well as professional tutors. Workable techniques explained in Tutor have emerged from a vital combination of practical experience and academically tested theory.

This text is designed to accompany LVA's one-to-one and small group tutor training workshops, which follow a holistic, integrated approach to understanding and teaching reading and writing.

Tutors should plan to attend additional in-service sessions provided by their local literacy programs, state LVA offices, Adult Basic Education programs, or other educational organizations in the community. Additional training is also available at LVA's annual conferences, which are open to students, tutors, trainers, administrative staff, and others interested in literacy.

The seventh version of Tutor assumes that you will do a great deal of reading, writing, listening, and speaking about each topic. One of our goals, in fact, is for you to use the book as a springboard to deepen your own understanding, to explore your assumptions, and to build your knowledge of literacy and tutoring. We encourage you to write in the margins and spaces provided. Highlight important ideas; make note of those things you find helpful and those things you want to come back to later.

One word about the case studies presented in these pages: these are all accounts of actual people. We have altered names and particular details of the situations to protect the confidentiality of those involved.

We, the three authors, invite you to join us and thousands of others across the country as together we work with people who have asked for help in reading and writing. As you help others, as you touch individual lives, you too will be touched. Your life will never be the same.

To order a copy of Tutor, call toll free 1-800-LVA-8812.

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