Generate a Student List

Once you have determined the student population to be served by this program and you have the necessary resources, ask the appropriate colleagues to generate a list of students in their classes that they feel need help in literacy development. You may want to provide staff members with some assessment tools, such as the spelling-by-stage assessment in Words Their Way. Ask teachers to administer specific informal measures that parents, and fellow teachers agree will be used. Some of these materials are found in the Reading Buddies Manual.

After the assessments have been administered, collect them from staff members and examine them yourself. This allows for the most consistency in interpretation and also allows you to begin organizing students into groups.

You, as a staff, also need to agree on criteria for exiting the program. This agreements will make it possible for other children to enter the Reading Buddies program.

After children are selected, literacy specialists may look in more depth at children’s knowledge.