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READ HOUSTON READ Listening, sharing, caring–Changing a child’s life through reading

TutorMate Online Literacy ProgramHouston Independent School District is partnering with the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation to train and manage a corps of volunteer one-on-one reading mentors to make a lifelong difference to our children.

Literacy by 3 is HISD’s movement to turn around and end the literacy crisis in Houston — not a mere initiative or program. Its mission is to have every child reading and writing with fluency by the end of Grade 3 — but Literacy by 3 will reach our students at every level who are struggling with reading mastery.

As part of the HISD Literacy by 3 initiative, the College of Education is participating in the Read Houston Read program through the Innovations in Learning TutorMate program. By giving 30 minutes to one hour of your time, once a week throughout the school year, you will help a first grader be that much closer to reading and writing with fluency.

This is an opportunity to build an important relationship with a student that will leave a lasting impact on their self-esteem, their ability to learn and their ultimate success. By working with the same student(s) for an entire school year, you have the potential to change the direction of their lives, simply by sharing the gift of reading. Donate your time to help a child, who may be struggling in school because he/she cannot read fluently, a great difference is to be made with your dedication to education!

Innovations in Learning works hard to assign tutors from the same organization to the same classroom, so please encourage your colleagues to join you in this effort and train together! 

Anyone who wishes to participate in this program will have to commit to work with a HISD student reading and playing literacy games for 30 minutes a week. You may set the appointment times with your student, and it can change week to week if necessary to accommodate your work schedule. Other than two visits to the school with your group, you will be participating from the comfort of your workspace.

If you need a quiet space to work with your student, the Conference Room in the Undergraduate Studies Office (FH 160) is to be made available for this program. If you have questions, you may contact Laura Lee who has experience with this program.

If you choose to participate, here is what to expect:

1)      You register, participate in the TutorMate training (it takes about an hour), and do a background check

2)      Groups of UH – COE volunteers would be assigned to students within a single school

3)      TutorMate sets a time for the group to visit the classroom and meet the students they will be working with

4)      You will read with your student weekly

5)      At the end of the school year, the group again visits the classroom for an end of year visit

Register now for TutorMate Online Literacy program and select UH Main Campus – Houston.

After you register, you will be directed to a second web page to sign up for training. Training should be complete on or before October 23rd.  After the training is complete, you will be asked to complete a background check.

Training Sessions:

  • October 2, 2015 - 12:00 PM Central
  • October 5, 2015 - 11:00 AM Central
  • October 9, 2015 - 1:00 PM Central
  • October 16, 2015 - 11:30 AM Central
  • October 23, 2015 - 11:30 AM Central

*We will make the 160 Conference Room available for training.