Spring 2003 Newsletter
The LinkAges Connection
The Reading Window is currently exploring expanding in connection with Louisa County’s LinkAges program.
LinkAges (rhymes with “pink pages”) is a Louisa County program that provides (in several good-sized rooms under one roof) facilities to meet the needs of various age groups — day care for young children; an after-school teen center for 7th, 8th, and 9th graders; an evening program for highschoolers; and two senior citizen programs — and that encourages crossover from each such group to the others (that is to say, it encourages “Linking” of the “Ages”).
The County’s Parks and Recreation director, Ron Basso, who is overseeing all these programs, suggested adding a program for providing individual reading instruction for students of all ages. Now, integrated with the other LinkAges modules and operating in the same building , The Reading Window started a pilot program to accomplish just that.
Recruiting Students and Tutor Trainees
Starting from its long-time core staff of two literacy tutors, The Reading Window has recruited paid tutor trainees who are learning the innovative, proven Reading Window techniques for teaching reading, during the course of helping teach each of two students in a six-week “workshop.” During the six weeks of the intensive training period, each newly hired trainee will work about two hours per day, five days per week. After the six weeks, he/she will be capable of working independently (for more hours, if preferred), bringing “at risk” children in Kindergarten, First, and Second grades up to, or above, average reading abilities, using enjoyable Reading Window games to achieve this. Further training can enlarge the trainee’s repertoire to include techniques for teaching older children. Interested persons living in or near Louisa, Virginia are invited to contact the school, as are potential students. For more information, Contact Piper.
As in the past, preschool children will graduate from the workshop effectively “inoculated” against schoolroom failure for the years to come. In addition, one 7th-grade student is enrolled in the pilot program, and now it may be easier to include more students of varying ages — older children and teenagers who can come to the literacy schold’s center at the LinkAges building after their regular school day, as well as adults, including seniors.
Dates and Location of Pilot Program
The Reading Window’s LinkAges pilot program began Monday, March 3, 2003, at the LinkAges building — the Betty J. Queen community building at 522 Industrial Drive, near the Louisa Airport — and will continue through Friday, April 11, 2003.
Piper Martin, the school’s principal and lead tutor, is excited about the pilot program — you can hear it in her voice as she talks about teaching children and adults to read “with understanding and enjoyment” and as she explains details of the expansion and her plans for “taking it to the next level.”
Recent Community Visioning Meeting
Knowledgeable and forward-thinking community members including former State Senator V. Earl Dickinson attended a January visioning meeting, with brainstorming for the LinkAges connection and future expansion.
Taking It to the Next Level
The visioning meeting helped the school explore ways of expanding the program beyond the central Virginia area. The LinkAges connection is part of the build-up to a statistical research study. The Reading Window is in dialog with the University of Virginia’s Department of Education toward that goal. For the study, there will be eight to ten tutors and a minimum of thirty students, with a control group of the same size.
This is part of Ms. Martin’s dream of adding statistical proof to the voices of scores of grateful families of successful students — with the potential long-term goal of seeing public schools give children their first literacy grounding in this new, better, more effective, more economical, Reading Window way.
Readers Who Wish to Contribute
The Reading Window has recently received an $8000.00 grant from the Bama Works Foundation, which is sufficient (by squeezing the dollars!) for 18 full scholarships or about 25 partial scholarships. Further investments in our children’s future will definitely transform children’s lives — one by one as each scholarship becomes available — then hopefully by the hundreds if/when this technology becomes available in public schools.
Bama Works Foundation was established by the Dave Matthews Band to carry out the band’s commitment to charitable works, both close to home and world wide. Dave Matthews Band has also performed at a number of benefit concerts.
Each time the school reaches another $350 in donations, it can offer a full scholarship to a low-income child (or adult!) on the waiting list — and a person who can read with understanding and enjoyment is much more likely to become a contributing member of society. If donations are generous enough in total, they can also provide sorely-needed transportation and can otherwise facilitate operations.
You may make contributions online using your credit card. Donations of cash and personal checks are appreciated too. Stop by the school (call [540] 872-1999 first, please!), or mail to 103 West St., Louisa, VA 23093. We also seek a donation of a plain paper fax machine. All contributions are tax-deductible.
Other Reading Window Projects
A children’s book for beginners, titled It is Not, written by Ms. Martin as especially for use with Reading Window tutoring techniques, is now ready to download from the school’s website. A book for parents and others to learn how to do the tutoring is well under way. The working title is The Reading Window Way.
New Offers
At the January visioning meeting, during the discussion of possible ways to assist those who cannot come for hands-on training, Earl Cleveland made this offer:
I was invited to a meeting for the Reading Window and enjoyed hearing all the good things you are doing. I suggested to Piper that to help any one interested in using the Window system, a Reading Answers Archive be set up for users to offer their own answers to any problems that might arise for others while using this program. I work for GE and we use an answer service that helps people working on equipment in the field. I think something similar could be done for new users of Reading Window methods. If you would be interested in this input please let me know.
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We ask all readers of this newsletter for other offers and ideas to take the Reading Window technology for reading with enjoyment and understanding — TO THE NEXT LEVEL.