Volunteer Retreat - Virtual (REQUIRED)

Save-the-Date: Fri, Jan 19: 10am-1pm

Part training, part community building, part good old fashion fun - please join us!

Every year, Literations hosts a half-day retreat for Literacy Coaches as a way to build community, celebrate your work with students, and provide additional training and support. More info coming - please save the date (record as 3 hrs "training" time).

Literacy Coach Drop-Ins on Zoom (OPTIONAL)

• Fri, Dec 1 at 9am
• Mon, Dec 11 at 1pm 

Please join Literations staff for drop-in hours to get advice on any questions that may have popped up in the first weeks of sessions and have some great discussions with other members of the Literations community (record as 1 hr "training" time).

Zoom link for all Drop-Ins: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84150577396

Missed It? Emergent Reader Program (ERP) Town Hall

ERP refresher & best practices for coaches with ERP students held on Nov 17 (record as 1 hr "training" time if attended or "direct" time if watched).

• WATCH RECORDING HERE

Holiday Break

Begins December 23. Literations has an organization-wide holiday and will not be running coaching sessions either at our schools or Boys & Girls clubs during the holiday break. 

• Tues, Jan 2 - Framingham sessions resume; staff return
• Wed, Jan 3 - Boston school and club sessions resume

District Calendars

• BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• FRAMINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Continuing to Support Our Coaches



Literations observes coaches throughout the year so we can understand what’s working and where we may need to provide additional support and training for coaches. The stronger and more confident our coaches are in delivering our program, the stronger and more confident our students will become in their reading.

Our observations help make Literations an even better experience for both our coaches and students.

Team leaders and program staff will begin observing coaches (focusing on first-year volunteers first and returning volunteers next) in December and January. Please have a look at the observation form to see what team leaders will be observing and discussing with you. As you will see, the form follows our 30-minute structured session and provides opportunities for coaches to share what they need to feel confident and successful. 

COACH OBSERVATION FORM

The EC HUB

The Experience Corps HUB

Volunteer Time and Session Tracking

All returning sites will have been trained on the EC HUB by the end of this week. We appreciate everyone's patience and adaptability as we navigate this new technology platform.

You can refer to the HUB FAQs AND RESOURCES on The Literations Link for reference on how to access the HUB, enter session data, and submit your time.

For any and all inquiries, issues, and/or comments about the HUB, please email: programsupport@literations.org.

To Do This Month

Submit Sight Word Checklist

If you have an Emergent Reader (ERP) student, please share the completed sight word checklist with your team leader or program staff. They will record the data in our system so we can celebrate your students' reading gains at year-end.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Survey

We rolled out our Student SEL Survey in November.

Each coach should review the SEL RATING GUIDE and complete a 5-question survey about each of their students at the beginning and end of the year so we can understand our students' SEL growth over the year.

GO TO SEL SURVEY HERE

Gift Giving

Literations provides Reading A-Z books to our students and considers building a child's home library the greatest gift we can give. Cash and/or purchased gifts are not appropriate for students. 

While the holidays can be a time for gift-giving in many cultures, we ask that our volunteers refrain from giving gifts to their students. As an organization, we provide books throughout the year to our in-person students and have in past years provided end-of-year gift bags to all the students we serve. 

We have a gift-giving policy in the LITERATIONS VOLUNTEER HANDBOOK (pg 32) you can refer to with your teams, site team leader, and program staff for discussion if your team is interested in potential gift-giving at the end of the program year.

Coaching Quick Tips

Encouragement - It's Better Than Praise



PRAISE is an expression of approval. Recognizes achievement.

"Good job. You're so smart."

ENCOURAGEMENT is inspiring with confidence. Recognizes effort. 

"Good job. You worked hard today."

On the surface, praise and encouragement seem to be similar reactions to an accomplishment. There are, however, key differences. Most importantly, there’s a big difference in the way children internalize them. 

Praise focuses solely on what was achieved, whereas encouragement focuses on effort. By placing the focus on effort, we invite kids to consider what led them to success so they can replicate those actions in the future. It also shows that hard work which leads to progress (big or small) is what's most important when approaching new challenges.

Continued encouragement can help children develop a habit of positive self-talk, leading to greater perseverance in the long run. 

Examples of Encouragement

• I really appreciate it when you…
• You worked really hard today, and it paid off. 
• You made a lot of progress today. How does it feel?
• You used great expression when reading today. 
• Great work using your word attack strategies to figure out those tough words.

Discount Theater Tix!

Local Theaters Support Literations Volunteers

Get theater tickets for $20 at any HUNTINGTON THEATRE, SPEAKEASY STAGE, or LYRIC STAGE show!

When you complete and return the HUNTINGTON COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP INITIATIVE FORM, you will receive a membership card and a code to use when calling the box office or purchasing show tickets online.