Book Buddies is a one-on-one community volunteer reading program that plays an integral role in helping Charlottesville city schools ensure that students in elementary grades learn to read and write.

Book Buddies is a research-based one- on-one tutorial program that supports reading instruction in the classroom. It enlists trained community volunteers to provide instruction to first and second grade students who need extra support in literacy acquisition. There are approximately 120 tutor-student pairs who are supervised by eight reading specialists at five elementary schools. Volunteers are trained to become effective tutors in a two-hour group session in September and a follow-up building-level session in January. They receive additional support throughout the year by the reading specialists at each school. A published manual is made available to the new tutors. The reading coordinators write individualized lesson plans for each tutoring session. They assess the students three times a year, participate in scheduling, and maintain communication with the students’ classroom teachers. Research data shows that students are achieving, as evidenced by increases on measures of alphabet and word recognition. The Book Buddies Program has attracted widespread national attention at reading conferences and in national and international professional journals. It has been replicated throughout Virginia and around the nation. The Book Buddies Program is the recipient of the Virginia State Reading Association’s 1997 Literacy Award.
[hide]