Minnesota Reading Corps

Description

Minnesota Reading Corps Overview

Minnesota Reading Corps is a statewide initiative to help every Minnesota child become a successful reader by the end of 3rd grade. The program places AmeriCorps members in sites to implement a researched-based early-literacy effort to help struggling readers. The Minnesota Reading Corps strategies are designed for both preschool-aged students and K-3rd grade students. Minnesota Reading Corps members can choose to serve in a preschool setting or a Kindergarten - 3rd grade setting.

Minnesota Reading Corps members work with preschool-aged children in their classrooms to create literacy-rich environments, focusing on the "Big Five" emergent literacy skills. Data is regularly collected for each child in order to tailor literacy interventions for individual children, children in small groups, and for whole classrooms.

Minnesota Reading Corps members serve as one-on-one tutors and provide research-based interventions to students who are just below proficiency in reading. The members tutor each student daily for 20 minutes to build phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency skills. A Response to Intervention (RtI) model is followed. Some members also recruit and train volunteers to support literacy efforts within the school.