Become a Read To Succeed Reading Buddy

What it takes
Our reading buddies are highly motivated to help others and genuinely enjoy working with young children in an instructional relationship.

They are flexible. Sometimes they show up to find that their student is home with the flu or the class had a last-minute schedule change and the coaching session had to be cancelled. Our buddies roll with this because they know that the end result is more important than the immediate inconvenience.

Our reading buddies are prepared.  They come to a session with a well-organized lesson plan that follows the R2S program.
They are dependable, and are available for one buddy session each week during the school year. 

They are patient. A Reading Buddy knows that that his/her student might have had a distressing event at home or little sleep the night before.

Finally, our buddies are R2S ambassadors in their assigned Asheville City and Buncombe County schools, communicating positively with teachers and school administrators about the R2S mission and their students' progress. 

Interested?

Follow this link to apply to become an R2S volunteer.

The Training
Training takes place throughout the year. If you are interested in becoming a Reading Buddy, we will contact you with the date of the next scheduled class.

Training is conducted in three 2.5 hour sessions. During this time trainees learn to incorporate basic phonics, reading, comprehension, vocabulary, sight words and rhyming into a 45 minute lesson plan.

Our next reading buddy training session will begin in January 2019. View our winter training dates here!

Ongoing Support
Read to Succeed knows that the heart of our program is is our team of highly trained volunteers. We are committed to providing ongoing  and accessible support and training.  Our program director and trainer, Julie Thomas, is a valuable resource for problem solving and coaching guidance.

Each buddy is periodically observed and evaluated to assure that teaching techniques remain true to the R2S curriculum and standards. Within the organization we often remind each other to "leave our pride at the door" in order to accept constructive criticism. 

In addition, volunteers gather on the first Thursday of each month to exchange information, obtain additional training and network. Often, a guest speaker presents new perspectives on literacy and working with our target population.